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| Africa: North |
| GSPC steps up attacks, kills 3 farmers |
| 2005-04-03 |
| hree Algerian farmers were killed on Sunday and two paramilitary policemen wounded in a bomb attack by the country's main Islamic militant group with suspected ties to al Qaeda, a security source said. The Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) detonated a home-made bomb on a highway in the Boumerdes province, some 60 km (40 miles) east of the capital, when a police convoy transporting prisoners and farmers passed by. The inmates, destined for a court in Dellys, did not escape, a security source told Reuters. The authorities were not immediately available for comment. But Algeria has seen an escalation in violence in recent days, with more than a dozen soldiers and civilians killed in attacks blamed on the GSPC. Analysts say a much-weakened GSPC is trying to fight back as the army steps up an offensive against rebel strongholds in the west and east of the oil-rich North African country and authorities prepare for a general amnesty. Several rebels have also died in recent clashes. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |