KERRACH, Algeria - Thirty-one villagers, mostly women, were killed by Islamic extremists as the Algerian army pursued its biggest anti-terrorist offensive in two years in the run-up to parliamentary elections.
The massacres occurred early on Monday at the village of Kerrach near the town of Blida, 50 km south of the capital, witnesses said. A group of 30 to 50 men armed with guns, axes and swords took families out of their homes and decapitated some. Survivors said that 24 women, six men and a child were killed.