An armed group machine-gunned a bus killing 11 passengers and wounding 10 late Tuesday at Medea, some 80 kilometers south of the capital of Algiers, residents of the town said.
Reached by phone from Algiers, they said the bus was attacked by Islamists in Takbou, a suburb of Medea.
Elements of the feared Armed Islamic Group (GIA) operate in this region, according to AFP.
Meanwhile, earlier this week, on Sunday night, two people were killed and one was wounded at a checkpoint set up by an armed group who opened fire on a truck and a taxi near Larbaa, 20 kilometers south of the Algerian capital. The Larbaa district is also a stronghold of the GIA.
The new head of the group, Rachid Abou Tourab, who succeeded Antar Zouabri, killed in February by security forces, has pledged to continue his predecessor's hard line until an Islamic state is set up in Algeria.
"Neither truce nor dialogue nor reconciliation nor security, but blood, blood, destruction, destruction," he promised in a leaflet.
"We shall continue to destroy their harvests, to take their goods, to rape their women, to decapitate them in the towns, the villages and the deserts," the new leader vowed, saying his men would continue to "kill and cut throats without any respite." (albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
