Posted on 11/24/2002 10:21:32 AM PST by ds2000
Islamic Militants Kill 13 in Algeria ( )
GIERS, Algeria, Nov 24, 2002 (AP Online via COMTEX) -- An Algerian militant group suspected of links to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida killed nine soldiers and four police officers in violent clashes east of Algiers, the official news agency APS reported Sunday.
The two days of gunfights, which reportedly left two militants dead, were the latest bloodshed in a 10-year Islamic insurgency that has taken more than 120,000 lives in Algeria.
Militants of the extremist Salafist Group for Call and Combat ambushed troops Saturday 110 miles east Algiers, the capital, killing nine soldiers and wounding 12, the APS report said.
That fight broke out as government forces carried out a roundup after an ambush a day earlier, Algerian daily Liberte reported.
Four police officers were killed between Thursday night and Friday morning in Bourmedes, 30 miles east of Algiers, the capital, APS reported.
The Kabyle region, home to Algeria's ethnic Berber minority, is also a hotbed of the Salafist organization, a four-year-old militant group headed by Hassan Hattab. The group, which Algerian officials say has 600 active members, is on a U.S. list of terror organizations. Algeria is one of several countries that says the group has ties to al-Qaida.
Algeria is in the midst of a 10-year Islamic insurgency that started after the army canceled legislative elections that an Islamic party was poised to win.
The violence in the Muslim north African nation raised the death toll to more than 40 - including soldiers, civilians and militants - in the Islamic holy month of Ramadan that began Nov. 6.
Copyright 2002 Associated Press, All rights reserved
O.K. - when are the remaining sane people on this planet going to come to the conclusion that it is not a handful of random terrorists that happen to be of the Muslim faith that we are battling here? This is a war, and I think it has become Islam against the rest of the world. Got it?
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