ALGIERS, 15 May 2006 — The bodies of 18 children and three women have been found in a cave in Algeria apparently massacred by extremist insurgents, police said yesterday.
A statement said government forces hunting down extremists still holding out in attempts to continue a long-running civil war, found the victims Saturday in a cave used as refuge by armed extremists.
Local journalists quoted police sources as saying the bodies were found at Jijel, 360 kilometers east of the capital Algiers, when troops raided a cave network in search of insurgents, killing five of them.
It was believed the victims were family members killed in order to prevent them talking to the authorities.
The alleged radicals were identified by the security source as belonging to the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC).
The GSPC, considered close to Al-Qaeda, has rejected a presidential reconciliation charter, which offers to pardon armed militants who have not committed blood crimes and are still underground.
Under the charter, several thousand extremists have already been released from prison.
