Algerian rebels slashed the throats of 25 villagers, including 16 children, teenagers and four women, in the worst massacre in Algeria this year, hospital sources said today.
The sources said the massacre occurred at El Guetaibia village in Chlef area 220 km west of Algiers, last night.
They cut the throats of 25 people from two extended families, a doctor at a hospital in the area said.
The doctor and other officials at the hospital quoted relatives of the dead as saying the radical Islamic Armed Group (GIA) carried out the attack.
The massacre brought the number of people killed in Algeria to more than 90 this month. A total of more than 100,000 people have died in violence which has racked the country since 1992 following the cancellation of a general election in which radical Islamists had taken a commanding lead.
The villagers in the area have been asking the authorities to grant them arms for self-defence since 1997 but they got no answer from the authorities, the doctor said.
The rebels also abducted a girl aged about 20 years, the doctor added, quoting relatives of the dead.
Most recent rebel attacks took place in Chlef region, a GIA stronghold, according to newspaper and official reports.
Reuters