Algerian soldiers killed in clashes with militants

Forty Algerian soldiers have been killed during clashes with Islamic militants, in one of the bloodiest attacks on the armed forces since the start of a nine-year insurgency today.

The soldiers were killed on Thursday in the town of Chrea, near the city of Tebessa, some 310 miles southeast of the capital Algiers.

Seven insurgents were also killed and 38 soldiers were injured.

The soldiers were ambushed by militants belonging to the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat.

The death toll was not confirmed by authorities. The Algerian army is largely made up of conscripts.

The north African nation has been convulsed by bloodshed since an Islamic insurgency started in 1992.

The uprising was triggered when the military-backed government cancelled elections that a fundamentalist Muslim party was set to win. Since then, more than 100,000 civilians, insurgents and soldiers have been killed.

The army frequently launches major crackdowns, aimed at flushing out the rebels from their mountain hide-outs.

But the insurgency has defied such military action and a peace initiative by President Abdelaziz Bouteflika.

Elsewhere in Algeria, nine people were killed today in clashes between protesters and police in the northeastern region of Kabyle, where violent riots have been taking place for a week, witnesses said.

The latest deaths bring to 29 the number of people reported killed in the mountainous region, which is home to the north African nation’s fiercely independent Berber minority.

The riots erupted after a high school student was mysteriously killed in a police station last Sunday.

Police said the youth was killed when an officer’s gun went off accidentally in a police station in Beni Douala, near Tizi Ouzou.

Disturbances centred on the region’s capital Tizi Ouzou, 62 miles east of Algiers, and the city of Bejaia, about 111 miles further east.

Witnesses said nine people were killed today in villages around Tizi Ouzou. Sixteen were seriously injured.

So far, officials have only confirmed 15 deaths, with 52 civilians and 284 police injured.

The opposition Front for Socialist Forces today called off demonstrations due to be held in Tizi Ouzou and in Bejaia, but because of the late notice, many protesters gathered anyway and marched through the towns. Scuffles were reported but there were no casualties.

Since the student’s death, protesters, mostly young men, have attacked public buildings with stones and erected blazing roadblocks in the region.

Witnesses said 15 people were killed in clashes on Thursday and Friday and five in previous days.