Suspected Islamic extremists killed 26 people in the early hours of this morning in the Algerian province of Chlef, 200 kilometers west of the capital, Algiers, the security forces said.
The victims, from three families who lived in the isolated village of Bokaat Laakakcha, had their throats slit by the extremists, inhabitants of the region said.
The attack is the most deadly to target Algerian civilians since 38 people were killed in a bomb blast on July 5th - Algeria's independence day - at the busy marketplace in Larbaa, 20 kilometers south of the capital.
The radical Armed Islamic Group (GIA) is known to operate in the Chlef region.
Both the GIA and another extremist group, the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), have rejected a reconciliation accord put forward by President Abdelaziz Bouteflika after his 1999 election.
The GIA has been led by Rachid Abou Tourab since February, when its long-time leader Antar Zouabri was killed in a gunbattle with government security forces.
Tourab has been quoted as vowing to murder all Algerians who disagree with the GIA's hardline views.
"We will continue to destroy their harvests, take their goods, rape their women, decapitate them in the cities, the villages and the deserts," he said after taking over leadership of the group.
"Neither truce, nor dialogue, nor reconciliation, nor security, but blood, blood, destruction, destruction," said Tourab, who had served as Zouabri's lieutenant and bodyguard since 1998.
More than 100 people have been killed in the ongoing violence in Algeria since the beginning of the month, according to a toll compiled from official announcements and press reports.
The violence began after the army halted a general election in January 1992 which a Muslim fundamentalist party was poised to win.
It has since claimed more than 100,000 lives, according to official figures, while an unofficial toll based on press reports and official statements puts the number of dead at around 150,000.
AFP