At least 16 students and a supervisor were killed overnight by an armed group at a boarding school at Medea, 80 kilometers (50 miles) south of Algiers, witnesses said Sunday.
The youths were shot dead by an armed group which entered the dormitory of Medea's vocational high school, in the middle of the town, at around 9:30 PM (2030 GMT), the witnesses said.
The attackers, whom witnesses said were Islamic fundamentalists belonging to the Armed Islamic Group (GIA), entered the dormitory under cover of darkness and opened fire.
Insurgency by fundamentalist groups has claimed at least 100,000 lives in Algeria since they took up arms in 1992, after the army called off the second round of elections the Islamic Salvation Front was poised to win -- ALGIERS (AFP)
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