Algerian rebels killed seven people at a bogus roadblock in the worst reported attack since the country voted overwhelmingly 13 days ago to approve a peace plan, a newspaper said on Wednesday.
Liberte said rebels from the Armed Islamic Group (GIA), Algeria’s most radical guerrilla faction, stopped two cars at the fake roadblock on Tuesday, forced seven travellers out of the vehicles and then killed them.
The newspaper gave no more details on the killing. Most of the victims in similar attacks had their throats slashed.
Liberte said the attack took place near Berrouaghia town in Medea province, 70km west of Algiers. The province is one of the main hotbeds of Algeria’s seven-year-old conflict.
The attack came five days after GIA rebels slashed the throats of five farmers at a fake roadblock in Attatba area in Tipaza region, 60km west of Algiers.
Militants have repeatedly set up roadblocks which appear to motorists to be manned by security forces. By the time travellers realise their mistake, it is often too late.
The guerrillas left a GIA pamphlet at the scene of the Attatba killing vowing to press ahead with attacks “until the establishment of an Islamic state in Algeria”, according to local newspaper reports.
The GIA and the other radical faction, the Da’wa wal Djihad (Appeal and Struggle), oppose President Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s peace policy approved in a September 16 referendum by more than 98 percent of voters.
The plan aims at ending seven years of violence between government forces and Moslem rebels during which 100 000 people were killed.
A relatively moderate rebel group, the Islamic Salvation Army (AIS), ended its guerrilla war against the state under a peace accord the AIS reached with Bouteflika in June.
Algeria plunged into a brutal conflict early in 1992 when the authorities cancelled a general election in which Moslem militants had taken a commanding lead.
