Paris - President Liamine Zeroual has appointed Gen Boughaba Rabah in place of Gen Said Bey as commander of the first military region which controls Algiers, Blida and other neighbouring areas where grisly massacres of civilians have taken place in recent months.
Algiers and Blida provinces were the scenes of massacres of hundreds of civilians this year. Human rights advocates in Algeria and abroad are questioning the army's ability and willingness to protect civilians, who are often slaughtered within earshot of its barracks and guardposts.
In June 1996, Mr Zeroual named Gen Kamel Abderrahmane as new chief of the second military region which controls the country's main oil hub of Oran andArzew, in the west. He replaced Maj-Gen Mohamed Bekkouche. The change there also followed reports of an increase in attacks by Muslim rebels in Algeria's western provinces, within the boundaries of the second military region.
More than 65,000 people have died in civil violence in Algeria since early 1992, when the army-backed authorities cancelled a general election in which radical Islamists had taken a commanding lead.