Five people, including two Islamic militants, were killed and two others injured in violence in Algeria in the previous 48 hours, Algerian newspapers reported Sunday.
Two shepherds had their throats cut on Saturday by an armed group at Sidi Bouzid in the Djelfa region, 270 kilometers (170 miles) south of Algiers, news reports said.
Two armed Islamic militants were shot dead by security forces near Djelfa on Friday, according to press reports.
A farmer who refused to pay protection money was killed Saturday in Sidi Lakhdar, about 160 kilometers west of the Algerian capital.
Further west in Tiaret, two people were injured Saturday when a bomb exploded in a cemetery, newspapers said.
Algerian security forces confirmed that a bomb explosion in Tiaret and the deaths of the two Islamist gunmen near Djelfa.
More than 100,000 people have died since fundamentalists took up arms after the army intervened in January 1992 to call off the second round of general elections that an Islamic group was poised to win -- ALGIERS (AFP)
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