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| Africa North |
| More on the GSPC attack - mayor killed |
| 2006-03-26 |
| ALGERIAN militants killed five civilians, including a mayor, stepping up attacks days after the start of an amnesty for rebels aimed at ending more than a decade of strife, residents and newspapers said overnight. Suspected members of al Qaeda-linked group the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) shot dead mayor Brahim Jellab outside his house on Friday night in Boumerdes province, 50 km east of the capital Algiers, residents said. GSPC is the only armed group operating in Boumerdes and the neighbouring province of Tizi Ouzou, Interior Minister Noureddine Zerhouni said last week. Mr Jellab is the fifth mayor to be assassinated by Islamist gunmen in Bourmedes in the past four years, residents said. Government forces killed a bombmaker for GSPC during an operation on Thursday in Boumerdes, newspapers said. Mohamed Mayouz, 38, was shot dead in an ambush, part of an offensive on rebel strongholds. In a separate attack, two rebels armed with Kalashnikov rifles shot dead four farmers on Thursday near Blida, 50 km south of Algiers, El Watan and Liberte dailies said. Six government soldiers were injured on Friday in a separate attack when a home-made bomb exploded in Jijel province, 350 km east of Algiers, El Watan added. Officials were not immediately available for comment. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |