An armed group killed 11 people and wounded eight in a port town near Wahran in western Algeria, in the worst massacre in years in the region, security services said Sunday.
The victims were attacked in the town of Arzew during a Muslim funeral vigil at dusk on Saturday, said the sources, adding that the attackers -- believed to be Islamic fundamentalists -- were among those injured.
Four people were seriously wounded.
The BBC radio said that the attackers were dressed in military uniforms and were greeted by the family of the dead, who thought the “soldiers” were there to extend their condolences.
But the terrorits opned their fire at people who were performing the Isha (evening prayers) under the tent erected as a ”condolences house”
The introductions had barely begun when the group opened fire, killing six people and wounding nine others. One of the wounded succumbed later to his injuries, said AFP.
The group then quickly withdrew to attack an isolated house nearby where they killed two young girls, a woman and a young conscript on leave, according to the agency.
Interior Minister Yazid Zerhouni arrived Sunday at the scene to find that people had armed themselves for protection.
The killings in the Wahran region, some 450 kilometres (270 miles) west of Algiers, were part of escalating violence across Algeria which has claimed 170 lives over the past three weeks, according to a tally by local newspapers and officials.
On Wednesday a civilian guard was killed and another was wounded in a suburb of the capital, officials were quoted by AFP as saying.
Algeria's civil war has claimed at least 100,000 lives since 1992, when the army cancelled elections that the now outlawed Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) was certain to win.
A “national accord” initiative by President Abdel Aziz Bouteflika when he took power in 1999 was endorsed by a referendum but failed to stop the violence – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
