Six people killed in Algeria

Terrorists killed yesterday 6 people, including two 70-year-old men, as government troops widened their siege on a radical rebel stronghold where over 100 villagers had been slaughtered since last April, Algerian newspapers said yesterday.

This news came hours after rebels of the relatively moderate Islamic Salvation Army (AIS) began a cease-fire they say will expose ra ival militant group whom they accused of "extreme barbarism" against civilians.

"Le Liberete" paper stated yesterday that gunmen thought to be members of the radical Armed Islamic Group (GIA) killed six citizens on Monday night in the Sidi Marzouk area, in the southwestern province of Saida, where the government killed 40 terrorists in a week-long offensive, Al Gomhoria daily said today.