Family wiped out in Algeria attack

[Gość: IZRAEL]

Family wiped out in Algeria attack


The brutal civil war shows no sign of ending
Suspected Islamic militants have killed 14 people - all from the same
family - in an overnight raid in Algeria.
Security officials said two men, their wives and children aged 18 months to
17 years were shot dead and had their throats slit in the attack in the
Chlef region, about 200 kilometres (125 miles) west of Algiers.

The raid followed an attack on Sunday in which eight people were killed by
suspected Islamic militants in the same region.

It was not immediately clear who carried out the latest attack, but
Algeria's authorities said the hardline Armed Islamic Group (GIA) was known
to be active in the area.

Correspondents say massacres attributed to GIA often appear to be at random,
with victims selected from among travellers on country roads or poor
villagers in outlying areas.

The state radio said that government troops had begun sweeping the area in
search of the attackers.

The GIA is among two groups which have rejected a partial amnesty offered in
1999 by President Abdelaziz Bouteflika as part of a national reconciliation
programme aimed at ending violence.

Around 150,000 people have been killed in Algeria's brutal civil war which
started in 1992, after the authorities cancelled a parliamentary election
which Islamists were poised to win.