12 reported shot dead on bus

ALGIERS - Twelve passengers on a bus carrying employees of an Algerian state owned company were shot dead yesterday at Keddara…

ALGIERS - Twelve passengers on a bus carrying employees of an Algerian state owned company were shot dead yesterday at Keddara, 50 kilometres south east of Algiers, informed sources said.

The bus was stopped at a bogus checkpoint - said to have been set up by armed Islamic extremists - when the passengers were shot dead, the sources said. Other travellers were wounded as the attackers sprayed the bus with bullets.

There was no immediate confirmation of the attack - one of the worst acts of violence so far this year in Algeria - from official sources.