Ten people were killed, including a police officer gunned down in a drive-by shooting in the capital Algiers, in fresh violence in Algeria, newspapers reported here on Monday.
The policeman was killed and another was wounded on Saturday while directing traffic after armed Islamists in a car fired on them at an intersection in Algiers' eastern working-class district of Hai El Badr, newspapers said.
The killing was the first in the capital in almost a year, and came only three weeks before the start of Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, when Islamic extremists are known to step up their attacks.
Also on Saturday, two bodies were found in the Stamboul forest near Mascara 340 kilometers (200 miles) west of Algiers, while the army was combing through the area, the newspapers said. The victims' throats were slit.
Meanwhile security forces moving through Mossadek in the region of Chlef, some 200 kilometers (120 miles) west of Algiers killed six Islamic fundamentalists late Friday, the daily El Watan reported.
Another armed Islamist was killed on Friday in Batna, some 430 kilometers (260 miles) southeast of the capital, the Es Sahafa newspaper said.
The civil war in Algeria, which broke out in 1992 after the military stepped in to deny certain electoral victory by the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS), has claimed more than 100,000 lives -- ALGIERS (AFP)
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