ALGERIAN President Liamine Zeroual last night vowed to crush Islamic fundamentalists behind a wave of brutal killings which have left more than 200 people dead in two weeks and taken the country to the brink of panic.
He promised to "exterminate" Islamic groups responsible for the bloodshed, saying "foreign forces" and "Algerian personalities" linked to the now banned Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) were behind a plot to destabilise Algeria.
In a nationwide television address, President Zeroual said plotters "trying to sow fear and terror among the citizens have not succeeded and will not succeed in destabilising the valiant Algerian people, or [undermining] the determination of the state to eradicate terrorism."
President Zeroual did not name foreign countries, but the Algerian authorities have in the past accused Sudan and Iran of involvement in the Islamic insurgency which has left an estimated 50,000 people dead in five years.
The conflict in Algeria - which had been reported to be in decline last year - began when the military backed government cancelled the second round of January 1992 elections which the since banned Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) looked likely to win.
Attempts to start talks between the fundamentalists and the government have failed.
Criticism of the government from the press and from ordinary Algerians has increased in recent days over its failure to halt the attacks, which late last year it had dismissed as "residual terrorism".
The fundamentalists struck again on Thursday night, killing 15 civilians only hours before President Zeroual's TV appearance. "They were killed on a farm at Ali Baba during the night, but it's not clear at what time exactly," one resident said.
The victims were all from one family. Neighbours said two others, both men, escaped but were badly wounded. Some of those killed were also mutilated, one said.
There was no official statement on the slaughter, nor on an unconfirmed report that 22 civilians had been slaughtered on Wednesday night or Thursday morning. Algeria's tightly controlled radio and television have kept complete silence.
Since the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan on January 10th, bombs and attacks have killed more than 200 people and around Algiers. As many as 42 people were killed by a car bomb in the Algiers suburb of Belcourt last Sunday.
State radio said yesterday that President Zeroual would soon start talks with political parties ahead of elections, seen as a way of bringing the country's 29 million people out of five years of bloodshed. About 60,000 people have died in the violence.
The government run newspaper El Moudjahid said early this month that the general election would be held in May.
Diplomats have said President Zeroual is determined to ensure there is no repeat of an Islamist ballot victory. Some believe an election will do little to change events in Algeria other than to give greater legitimacy abroad to the authorities.