Algerian group calls for cease-fire

The Islamic Salvation Army, the armed wing of the banned Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) announced a cease-fire starting next Wednesday in Algeria, in a two-page statement dated September 21.

Senior leader Madani Mezerag asked all forces fighting under his command to stop operations as of October 7 and called on other groups to rally unmask and isolate the members of the extremist Armed Islamic Group, (GIA) believed to be responsible for what the statement condemned as abominable massacres.

The call comes after 200 people were killed near Algeria in one of the worst massacres since 1992. Official reports put the death toll at 85 and said foreign news agencies were inflating the causalities, Al Ahram daily reported today.