25 terrorists killed in Algeria

Algerian government forces killed 25 terrorists in a southwestern province and are besieging another group of radical guerrillas in an abandoned village near Algeria, an Algerian newspaper said yesterday. El Watan reported that Army helicopters were intermittently shelling Owled Allil village, emptied of its 12,000 residents since 1994 when guerrillas from the radical Armed Islamic Group settled in after ordering inhabitants to leave or face death.

25 radicals were shot in the Sidi Mezoug area in the southwestern province of Saide in the past three days in a continuing army operation there said Al Khabar daily.

Meanwhile in the most recent attack on civilians, gunmen in the Algerian town of Ain Adden killed 11 women, all of them teachers.

The massacre started when the teachers were returning back to their homes after they finished the school day. The gunmen closed the street by blocking it with their truck and captured the teachers, bound their hands and feet together and then cut their throats.

A statement issued in the name of the Armed Islamic Group in Algeria claimed responsibility for the attack, heralding it as a warning to all Moslem women to stay home and care for children and family and not go outside to do any job.