| Islamic extremists killed four farmers as they worked in their fields in Algeria, national radio said on Saturday. The killings took place on Friday in the Medea region, around 80km south of the capital Algiers, the report said. The radio gave no further details. Earlier reports, published on Wednesday, said that three people were killed by Islamic militants on Tuesday in the western region of Tlemcen. Violence by Islamic extremists in Algeria is estimated to have killed about 150 000 people since 1992, but the rate of killings has declined sharply in the past two years. Since the start of this year around 150 people have been reported killed, down from just over 360 in the same four months of 2003. |