MUSLIM fundamentalists slaughtered 31 people in an attack on an Algerian village between Tuesday night and yesterday morning, Algerian security forces said.
A statement, carried by the official Algerian news agency, APS, said the 31 had been "assassinated in a cowardly way" in what it described as "this ignoble terrorist act".
The raid took place on Sid el Kebir, on the road to Chrea in Blida province, which lies some 50 km south of Algiers. The village is the site of a Zaouia - a traditional religious centre of someone locally respected for piety or learning.
The Interior Minister, Mr Mustapha Ben Mansour, termed the attack one of "ignoble savagery". It was the second in three nights. In the last attack, 13 people had their throats cut at the weekend. Neither source gave details on the actual attack but the phrase "in a cowardly way" has been used in Algeria to describe the cold blooded killing of victims by cutting their throats.
Algeria uses the term "terrorist" to describe Muslim rebels who have been fighting since 1992 to topple the government. Mr Ben Mansour confirmed that the dead were civilians.
"In targeting once again defenceless people, these criminals only confirm the baseness and unqualified cowardice which drives them in their determination to assassinate, without distinction and with ignoble, savagery, peaceful citizens," he said. He reiterated the government's determination, expressed frequently over the five years of violence, to "put an end to these criminals' activities with all the rigour of the law".
An estimated 50,000 people have been killed since violence erupted following the authorities' cancellation in January, 1992, of a general election dominated by Islamic fundamentalists.
After a series of bloody bomb attacks in September and October, including bombs planted in local markets crowded just ahead of mass Friday prayers, the rebels appeared to have changed their tactics. Last month, the Islamists killed 34 people at a roadblock they mounted in the Sahara Desert province of Laghouat - knifing them, cutting their throats or shooting them as they tried to flee.
Early on Sunday, 10 women and three children were killed, "their throats cut, one by one", after they were herded into a bedroom in Douadoua village west of Algiers, according to the Algerian newspaper Liberte.
In a chilling statement published last Sunday, Algeria's most ruthless Islamist movement, the Armed Islamic Group (GIA), dismissed Algerian outrage at the deaths of civilians, saying: "There are many religious proofs which make legitimate [our] bombing operations even when there are civilian victims.
The GIA leader, Mr Antar el Zouabri, quoted by the newspaper, al Hayat, also said: "The GIA forbids daughters and Muslim women to leave their homes uncovered [without Muslim dress]. No work or studies for women; those who refuse to obey must be killed."