A civilian guard was killed and another wounded yesterday in a working-class suburb of Algiers, a day after seven civilians were killed in a nearby resort town.
Officials did not elaborate on the attack, which occurred near a wholesale market in El Harrach. In the same suburb last week, a bomb was thrown into a marketplace but did not explode.
On Tuesday, Islamic extremist guerrillas killed seven people and wounded 11 in a raid on Zeralda, a coastal resort town 20 km from the capital.
Witnesses said a couple were murdered on the beach and then a restaurant in a tourist complex was attacked, where five people were massacred and 11 wounded.
Since August 1st, more than 160 people have been killed in attacks by armed gangs on civilians. Last week, 34 people were wounded in a blast in the teeming Casbah district.
Algeria's civil war has claimed at least 100,000 lives since 1992, when the army cancelled an election that the now outlawed Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) was certain to win. The upsurge in violence comes amid reports that the government has renewed discreet overtures to the FIS. Negotiations are opposed by radical armed Muslim groups and hardliners in the military.