Family massacred in Algeria

Ninety people have been killed so far this month

By North Africa correspondent David Bamford

Suspected Islamist militants in Algeria have massacred three generations of the same family in an attack on a holiday camp to the west of the capital, Algiers.

In one of the bloodiest months in the long-running insurgency campaign by the militants, the number of people killed since the start of July has reached 90.

These latest killings took place near the seaside resort of Tipaza.

According to reports, at about 0100 local time (0000 GMT) on Monday the electricity to the area was suddenly cut.

The attackers then arrived in a convoy of vehicles and moved into the house of the Merabet family, which was apparently deliberately targeted.

Killers took their time

The grandmother, mother, teenagers and young children were all killed - seven people in all - in an operation in which the insurgents took their time.

They did not leave until 0300 local time and help did not arrive until five hours later.

The attackers may have been from the same group that on Saturday night killed another seven people in Ain Tagourait, a town just a few kilometres closer to Algiers.

Whatever the case, the authorities in Algeria seem unable or unwilling to do what is necessary to bring about an end to the killings, in which about 1,300 people have died since the start of the year.