Islamist extremists killed eight people in an attack in western Algeria today, security services said.
Armed Islamic Group (GIA) militants are active at Boukaat El Maqam near Ain Merrane in the Chlef region, 200 kilometers west of the capital Algiers, where the attack took place at 4 a.m.
No other details of the attack were immediately available.
The GIA is the most brual extremist group in the Algerian civil war.
Along with the rival Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), it has rejected a partial amnesty offered in 1999 by President Abdelaziz Bouteflika as part of a national reconciliation programme to end the violence.
The conflict has killed at least 66 people since the beginning of the month and nearly 480 since the start of the year, according to an AFP tally compiled from government figures and media reports.
AFP