TWELVE people, including four women and three children, were murdered early yesterday in Bensalah, a village in northern Algeria, in an apparent reprisal for opposition to Islamic fundamentalists.
Some 15 members of the Armed Islamic Group (GIA) attacked a small village near the town of Blida at around 1 a.m. and slit the throats of the 12 civilians, 10 from the same family.
One of the family was a "patriot" of the self defence group which protects the village from terror attacks. Extremist Islamic groups, which have battled the government in Algiers for almost five years, have vowed to kill members of such groups to avenge resistance to their uprising.
"They also set fire to a van which alerted the other villagers, who saw the flames," said one villager. "The patriots came out into the night and fired shots into the air. The terrorists fled. We think they would have then attacked a second family."
The killings brought the number of people killed this month to 76. Attacks by Islamic militants have increased in recent weeks as a constitutional referendum called by President Liamine Zeroual looms.
The fundamentalists oppose the referendum, which is due to be held on November 28th, and which if passed will strengthen presidential powers.
Last week, the Blida region south of Algiers was the scene of one of the bloodiest attacks in Algeria's war between the army and fundamentalist militants. In the mountain hamlet of Sidi El Kabir, 32 people were killed by Muslim extremists. And on Monday, a car bomb killed 10 people and wounded more than 20 in an Algiers suburb.
The precise motives for the attacks remain unclear, but many fall into the category of revenge operations against the civilian population and against self defence groups. Several thousand such groups have been set up, with the encouragement of the Algerian authorities, to ward off attacks by extremists.
The fundamentalists rose up in January 1992 after the army intervened to cancel elections that the now banned Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) was poised to win. The ensuing violence has left tens of thousands of people dead.
Authorities have been insisting, for a year that they are now facing only "residual terrorism". But some opposition members dispute the claim, saying the security situation is worsening and will deteriorate further with the holding of the referendum.
Part of the legal opposition has just launched an "appeal for peace," which has been supported by the FIS, now in exile abroad.
The FIS has also condemned attacks on civilians. However its armed wing, the Islamic Salvation Army, often claims responsibility for attacks on self defence groups.