Algerian villagers 'killed in new attack'

Newspapers in Algeria says twenty-seven villagers have been hacked to death in an attack in the south-west.

Liberte newspaper reported that the attackers stormed a village Zouabria near Tiaret, more than two-hundred kilometres south-west of the capital, Algiers.

The report said the dead, whose throats had been cut, included a baby.

Ealier this week, more than eighty people were killed in attacks which the authorities blamed on Islamic militants.

Newspapers also reported that the Algerian security forces have renewed operations against Islamist fighters.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service