Some 13 persons were killed by gunmen to the south of Algiers

Security sources said that gunmen assassinated on Thursday evening 13 persons at a fake check point they had installed, 30 km to the south of the capital.

The sources added that the gunmen installed a barrier on road number 8 which links the two town of al-Arba'a and Tablat in al-Medya province and monitored four cars and one truck and opened fire on them.

The sources added that the attackers set fire after that in the cars and in the truck where 10 burnt bodies were found in addition to one wounded.

This massacre came a short time after a speech delivered by President Abdul Aziz Butaflika in which he announced that security has been established in vast areas of the country, thanks to "sacrifices" of the security forces especially the army.

Since the beginning of March, some 50 persons of the security forces were killed in acts of violence attributed to armed groups, according to press and official statistics.

By the end of February, the Algerian president announced that armed violence during the last ten years claimed the lives of 150,000 persons and losses estimated at $ 30 billion in the economic and social infrastructure in Algeria.