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| Africa: North |
| Five Algerian soldiers, two police killed in ambush |
| 2004-08-25 |
| Five Algerian soldiers and two policemen have been killed in an ambush laid by extremists near the Mediterranean coastal capital, Algiers, newspapers reported Wednesday. Thirteen other members of a security patrol were injured when some 30 radicals opened fire with automatic weapons and home-made mortars on the patrol's convoy of vehicles overnight Monday, the papers said. According to sources close to the security forces, the attack was carried out by the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), the largest Muslim radical group still active in Algeria and said to be linked to the Al Qaeda network. The GSPC set fire to a games centre for local youths to lure the security patrol into the ambush, the sources told the press. A teenage boy was seriously wounded when he was caught in crossfire as the patrol responded after the ambush. The attack occurred near Boumerdes, 50 kilometers (30 miles) east of Algiers, where the wooded and hilly terrain provides an ideal hiding place for radical groups. |
| Posted by:Fred |