28 bodies found in cave hide out

Security forces found 28 dead bodies, including those of 21 children, in a secluded cave used as a hide out by an Algerian Islamic militant group, it was reported today.

The bodies were discovered on Saturday in the Beni Khatab mountains, about 280 miles) east of the capital, where authorities were hunting down suspected members of the al Qaida-linked Salafist Group for Call and Combat, El Chourouk newspaper reported.

It was unclear exactly how long ago the victims had been killed. The dead were 21 children, four women and three militants, the paper said. Security forces did not immediately confirm the report.

The North African nation’s insurgency has waned in recent years, with far fewer killings and kidnappings, and massacres on this scale are now rare.

The insurgency started in 1992, when the army cancelled Algeria’s first multiparty legislative elections to thwart a likely victory by a now-banned Muslim fundamentalist party. The violence has killed an estimated 120,000 people.