Abdelmalek Touati
Tipaza - Radical Muslim rebels shot six civilians dead and wounded 14 others in a small farming village in northern Algeria before a policeman opened fire on them and they fled, residents said on Tuesday.
Two of the wounded are in a serious condition, said the residents of Haouch Germain in Tipaza province, 70km west of the capital Algiers, where the attack occurred on Monday night.
"I heard loud machine-gun fire. I rushed to the café and I found five bodies in a pool of blood. They died of bullet wounds. Some of the wounded had escaped, the others were carried away to the hospital," said 40-year-old Hanna Ibrahim.
"The terrorists escaped after a policeman fired at them. Otherwise, the death toll could have been much higher," said Ibrahim, using the official term to describe Muslim guerrillas waging an eight-year-old rebellion in a bid to topple the largely secular government.
He said the off-duty policeman was playing cards with his friends at the small coffee shop.
Monday's attack occurred about 24 hours after another group of Muslim rebels slashed the throats of a family of five in the village of El Amaria, near the province of Blida, 200km south of Algiers.
A new wave of violence has hit the North African country ahead of a January 13 deadline for Muslim rebels to surrender in exchange for amnesty.
The government says more than 1 500 rebels have surrendered to the authorities since the amnesty was decreed on July 13 as part of a peace drive by President Abdelaziz Bouteflika. Civil strife has claimed more than 100 000 lives in the country.
But the radical Armed Islamic Group (GIA), blamed for most civilian massacres, has dismissed the peace plan as a sellout and vowed to continue its attacks.
Residents blame slow security
Many residents of Haouch Germain, a small farming village near the Mediterranean coast, appeared angry at what they describe as the slow reaction of government security forces.
"What took you so long?" murmured a young farmer as a group of security officers passed by the coffee shop. Spots of dry blood still stained the pavement, littered with broken glass and smashed wooden chairs.
"We have 10 (pro-government) militiamen, but they are doing nothing. They don't care about us because they are not from the village," said another resident, who declined to be named.
He said the first security patrol arrived at the village one hour after the attack. The other, based only two kilometres away, followed later.
"They could have captured the terrorists ... if they reacted more swiftly," he added.
The French-language daily, Le Matin, said the victims in Sunday's attack include a 45-year-old pregnant woman and her elderly mother. Her husband, identified as schoolteacher Kadri, 52, and his two sons, also had their throats cut.
The rebels set fire to the house before escaping with Kadri's 20-year-old daughter, a Blida University student, Le Matin reported.
At least 146 people have been killed since the December 9 start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, according to government and newspaper counts.
Radical rebels see Ramadan as an auspicious period to step up what they call their "holy war" to set up a purist state.
Algeria plunged into violence in early 1992 after the authorities scrapped a general election which radical Islamists were poised to win. - Reuters