Algiers - At least 16 students and a supervisor were killed at the weekend by an armed group at a boarding school in Medea, 80 km south of the Algerian capital, witnesses said yesterday. The attackers, whom witnesses said were Islamic fundamentalists belonging to the Armed Islamic Group, entered the dormitory under cover of darkness and opened fire. Victims were all aged between 15 and 18. According to some witnesses, 19 students and two supervisors were killed in the attack.
Later yesterday, fifteen travellers were killed west of the Algerian capital when an armed group opened fire on a bus, and five people were killed in a separate incident one hour later. Since the Ramadan month of fasting began on November 27th at least 200 people have died in violence in Algeria, most of them members of the government forces and armed insurgents. Insurgency by fundamentalist groups has claimed at least 100,000 lives in Algeria since they took up arms in 1992, after the army called of the second round of elections the Islamic Salvation Front was poised to win.