The bodies of two Islamist rebel leaders were among the 26 corpses, mainly those of children, discovered by security forces this weekend inside a cave redoubt in the Algerian maquis, several newspapers reported Monday. Citing local correspondents and "credible sources," the reports said two chieftains of the outlawed Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) were found in a mountain hideout located near Jijel, some 360 kilometers east of the capital Algiers, along with the bodies of 18 children, three women and three other men. The newspapers differed markedly, however, in their accounts of how the massacre might have taken place.The two GSPC leaders were identified as 40-year-old Houari Youssef, also known as Mustafa Abu Omeir, and ex-policeman Makhlouf Ammar Abu al-Bara, also 40. Youssef was said to be the GSPC "emir" in charge of the region between the Babors mountains in Kabylie up to the seaside city of Skikda, 500 kilometers east of Algiers. Abu al-Barra, according to newspaper accounts, was responsible for issuing fatwas in the same region.
In the absence of any official government statement on the discovery of the bodies in the cave, only two dailies reported on how the killings occurred, or might have occurred. The Courrier d'Algier said "it was difficult to determine whether the victims - who appeared to have been dead for several days, if not weeks - were killed by the terrorists themselves, or whether they had died for lack of water and food."
Liberte reported that the women and children had been used as "human shields," trussed up with bombs that were exploded from a distance to slow the progress of advancing army troops. Press reports Sunday, quoting police sources, suggested that the women and children - belonging to the families of the Islamic radicals - were executed to prevent them from divulging any information that might compromise the GSPC.