Twenty-four people have been killed in Algeria in fresh attacks blamed on Islamic extremists or in security forces operations against them, press reports said Wednesday.
A woman and her five children had their throats slit in an attack in a small hamlet near northwestern Relizane on Monday, the daily Le Matin reported, adding that the woman's husband was an armed civilian guard.
Also on Monday, three soldiers were killed and two were wounded in an ambush near Tipaza, 70 kilometers (35 miles) west of Algiers, several newspapers reported.
The same day two firefighters were killed in Laghouat, a city in the desert south of the country. The assailants made off with their uniforms, press reports said.
Earlier, 13 Islamic militants were killed in a security forces sweep that began last Friday in the Ain Defla area, 170 kilometers (100 miles) west of Algiers, the daily El Watan reported, adding that the operation was continuing.
The latest killings bring the toll since the start of October to at least 65 people, in attacks blamed on the hardline Armed Islamic Group (GIA) and the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), which have both rejected the government's national reconciliation program.
Since mid-September the death toll in the civil war, now in its ninth year, has exceeded 150, including about 40 militants, according to press tallies.
On October 2, 14 members of the same family were massacred at Khemis Miliana, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) west of the capital - ALGIERS (AFP)
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