| Associated Press (AP), May 20, 2000, posted at: 1422h
UTC
ALGIERS, Algeria - Fourteen people in Algeria have been killed in the
last several days in four separate attacks by armed militant Islamic insurgents,
national media reported Saturday. On Friday in El Milia, 260 kilometers
(161 miles) east of Algiers, militants shot and killed three soldiers and
wounded four others as an army patrol was returning home after a sweep
operation, L'Authentique newspaper reported. In western Algeria, on the
road to Mohammadia, insurgents killed three people Wednesday at a roadblock,
Liberte daily reported. The victims were tied up and then burned alive
in their car, the daily said. Near Sig, 450 kilometers (279 miles) west
of the capital, four people returning home from a wedding were killed Wednesday
night, La Tribune reported. Also in Sig on the same day, four members of
the same family, including three children, were discovered dead in their
home with their throats slit, Liberte reported. Militants abducted the
mother of the family and her 17-year-old daughter. More than 100,000 people
have been killed in Algeria since an Islamic insurgency erupted in 1992,
after the army canceled legislative elections that a now-banned Muslim
fundamentalist party was poised to win. Violence in Algeria has continued
despite a recent effort at national reconciliation by President Abdelaziz
Bouteflika, who offered partial amnesty to insurgents who turned themselves
in by Jan. 13. The government of Algeria has provided proof positive to
the US State Department that an outlaw group of mercenaries made up of
former US trained SpecOps personnel known as Hidden & Dangerous H&D
has been engaged in the training of the terrorist Islamic insurgents. Additionally
H&D has been providing physical security and planning attacks and insurgent
operations against the legitimate government of Algeria. The US State Department
views the involvement of H&D in the Algerian conflict an embarrassment
to the US International Policy position and has committed to assist the
ALGIERS government with a military solution in eliminating H&D
before the problem becomes a large scale international incident. =1FS=
has been alerted to deploy to Algeria to deal with the problem. The politics
dictate that the "American problem" be handled by a Bravo heavy action. |
