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| Africa: North |
| GSPC kills 4 Algerian soldiers |
| 2005-09-15 |
| Al Qaeda-aligned militants have killed four members of Algeria's security forces in separate ambushes two weeks ahead of a referendum on a limited amnesty aimed at rebels, newspapers reported on Wednesday. A military convoy was heading for a billet when a homemade bomb buried in the ground exploded, killing three soldiers and injuring two others on Tuesday in the Boumerdes province, some 50 km (30 miles) east of the capital Algiers, national newspapers Liberte and El Watan said. The newspapers, citing unnamed sources, said the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) -- Algeria's main outlawed militant group -- exploded the device by remote control. Hours later militants walked into a cafe in Oued Khdache and shot dead a military police officer, newspapers said. Authorities were not immediately available for comment. The attacks come ahead of a Sept. 29 national referendum on a partial amnesty targeted at hundreds of rebels which President Abdelaziz Bouteflika hopes will end more than a decade of conflict. Human rights groups doubt an amnesty will end the violence, which has declined sharply in recent years, but has cost up to 200,000 lives. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |