Algiers - Twenty-five people were killed at the weekend by Islamic extremists in a tiny hamlet in the Chlef region in western Algeria, villagers said yesterday.
The attackers slit the throats of their victims, who were from three families in Ouled Fares, some 200 km west of Algiers. Several children were reported to be among the dead, but authorities have yet to confirm the attack took place.
The Chlef region, along with neighbouring Ain Defla and Medea, south of the capital, are often the scene of brutal attacks by Islamic fundamentalists from the Armed Islamic Group (GIA). Twenty-three people were killed in an armed attack on an isolated hamlet in Chlef on January 18th.
More than 190 people have been killed in violence in Algeria since the beginning of the year, according to a toll compiled by the Algerian press.