Despite inclination to general pardon: four killed in new confrontations in Algeria

Four Algerians were killed in an armed attack launched by unidentified persons the Algerian dailies said they belong to extremist Islamists groups in Ein al-Defl province, 120 km to the west of the capital Algiers.

The Algerian daily Liberty said on Monday that among the killed persons are security men members, considering that the attack came to obstruct what it described as efforts by the authorities to end violence.

Earlier, a security source said that what it described as extremists assassinated on Saturday the chairman of a municipality in Jejil state, 350 km to the east of the capital Algiers. One army officer was injured in the attack.

News reports said on Sunday that two civilians were killed when a locally made bomb went off in a mountainous area near Bear al-Ater town, in Tebsa, 630 km to the east of Algiers.

Some 40 persons, most of them are soldiers and members of the security forces were killed near the capital in the four past weeks in a series of attacks presumed to be by members of al-Salafeyah groups for fighting, the largest armed organization in Algeria.