PARIS - Suspected Muslim guerrillas have killed 29 civilians in Algeria in the past few days, including 17 bus passengers caught at a rebel roadblock, Algerian newspapers reported yesterday. A band of up to 60 guerrillas killed 17 passengers travelling in two, separate buses caught n a rebel roadblock near the southern town of Sfid, 400 km south of Algiers, on Sunday night, according to al Khabar newspaper.
On Monday night, a Muslim fundamentalist told Algerian state-run television that his guerrilla group had killed the trade union leader, Abdelhak Benhamouda, one of the most prominent victims of the violence in Algeria this year. Mr Moujahed Rachid (30), a university student, said one member of his seven-member group, Kamal Boulanouar, shot the union leader in central Algiers on January 28th as part of a plan to throw the country into political crisis.
Meanwhile, a landmine has killed a 10-year-old boy and wounded his eight-year-old sister in el Foulia, a village 500 km from Algiers.