On gunmen operations in Algeria

Since 1992 so far, Algeria witnessed some 6,040 armed operations that have resulted in the deaths of 100,000 persons, damaging 11,900 establishments which cost the state's general budget in Algeria a sum of 25 billion Algerian dinars, according to the Algerian daily al-Khabar.

The Algerian daily added that the peak of these operations was during the years, 1993, 1994 and 1995, during which thousands of Algerian workers lost their source of living.

Al-Khabar daily continued that some 17 members of the armed groups were killed in the vast mopping up operations carried out by the Algerian Army.

The paper added that the army used machine guns and helicopters in the mopping-up operations, carried out in the provinces of Tiaret, Mascara and Gleizan.

Al-Khabar also said that the self-defense men killed one Armed Islamic Group member and wounded another four in Ain Defla province.

Further reports said that the Algerian daily al-Youm said that all armed civilians will be stripped of their weapons in Algeria for a short period of time after the situation of those who surrendered is settled in the framework of the "civil concord law" and the presidential pardon released to this end.

In its Sunday issue, the paper reported that the number of those armed civilians is 500,000 including resistance men, self-defense men, al-Mujahideen, traders and state employees whose number is estimated at 60,000 armed men.