Militants slaughter 61 in Algeria
Algeria, Local, 7/11/1997

Suspected Muslim rebels have killed 61 civilians, including a baby and 12 women, in Algeria in the latest surge of violence reported by Algerian newspapers on July 8.

The civilians died in four attacks in Algiers and the neighboring province of Medea, showing no letup in the killing since the country's multi-party general election was held last month.

Around 300 people have died since the ballot, according to Algerian newspaper reports.

During the night of July 5, rebels killed 27 people, including 12 women, in a raid on Benia village in Medea province, 70 km south of Algiers, El-Watan newspaper said.

The slaughter followed an attack earlier in the week on another hamlet, Ouzera, in Medea where guerrillas killed 18 villagers, said the French-Language newspaper, normally well informed on security issues.

On July 5, as Algeria was marking its 35th Independence Day anniversary, a bomb expolded in Ouzera cemetery where the 18 had been buried, killing three boys scouts, said Al Watan.

The newspapaer said the same rebels who killed the 18 villagers had planted the bomb.

In Algiers, rebels cut the throats of three soccer fans caught at a fake roadblock near Jenane Hassan on the northern edge of the capital, said Liberte newspaper.

The three young men were among tens of thousands of people who took to Algiers streets to celebrate Union Algiers soccer team who won the country's premier football cup on July 5, Liberte said.

Algerian newspapers, tightly controlled on security issues and violence, have now reported about 300 civilians being killed by Muslim rebels since the June 5 general election.

At least a dozen young girls have also been kidnapped in that time, apparently to serve as "temporary brides " for the guerrillas.

The authorities saw the June ballot as a key step towards bringing the North African country out of more than five years of violence. It plunged into conflict after the authorities in January 1992 canceled a general election whose first round was dominated by the Islamic Salvation Front.

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