MEDEA, Algeria, 24 October 2004 — Suspected Algerian Muslim militants killed 16 people in the first attack on civilians since the start of the holy month of Ramadan, officials said yesterday. The victims, mostly young people, were shot dead, burned or had their throats cut at a rebel roadblock on Friday evening near the city of Medea, some 70 km south of Algiers, a civil defense officer told Reuters.
Local residents also said 13 people were reported missing and feared they had been kidnapped by the rebels. Some also said the number of dead was most likely 17. “I called my friend to find out if he had been caught in the attack. Someone else answered the phone and told me ‘come retrieve your dogs’,” a local resident, who asked not to be named, told Reuters. The victims have been transferred to a hospital in Medea.
The Interior Ministry was not immediately available for comment. Algerian rebels have usually intensified their attacks during Ramadan, which began eight days ago, in the belief it brings them closer to God. More than 1,000 were killed in Ramadan in some years during the 1990s. Last year, Ramadan was the least violent in a decade with less than 100 killed. But authorities have still tightened security in main cities this year to foil possible attacks.
Security sources told AFP that the attack happened around 1600 GMT as the victims were driving along a mountain road linking El-Hamdania to Bouarfa near Medea. The attackers opened fire on the vehicles before then setting them alight, and nine charred bodies had been found, they added.
Meanwhile, Algerian Islamist opposition leader Abbasi Madani said his banned party was ready to help government peace efforts in the strife-torn North African country but stressed the need for genuine democratic reforms. Madani, whose Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) party was outlawed 12 years ago, also told Reuters in an interview late on Friday that he planned to return home but that he had no political ambitions.
President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, re-elected in April on the back of halting much of the violence ravaging Algeria since the early 1990s, is promoting “national reconciliation” to end the conflict but has given few details of the policy.
“The FIS wants to work with the government. We want to help bring real democracy and real freedom to the people of Algeria,” said Madani, who has been living in the Gulf Arab state of Qatar since his release from prison in 2003.
“There is no other option but to have true reconciliation — as opposed to the false democracy and false freedom that we were offered in the past.,” said Madani, who is banned from political activity in Algeria. Madani, in his 70s, was arrested shortly before the authorities canceled parliamentary polls the FIS was poised to win in 1992.
