There are reports of further killings in Algeria, where hundreds of civilians have been slaughtered in the past 10 days in the latest wave of violence blamed on Islamic extremists. The continuing bloodshed has prompted a mounting international chorus of calls for outside investigation, but the Algerian government has angrily rejected the proposal. Our Middle East correspondent Jim Muir has been following developments:

Once again the Algerian newspapers are full of gruesome accounts of the latest blood-letting in what has been the worst period of carnage since the current crisis began six years ago. Although casualty estimates vary, all accounts agree that at least 150 people were butchered in the remote area of Had Shekala, where tented encampments were attacked by gunmen on Sunday night.

Many of the victims were beheaded, mutilated or burned. One account said that the severed head of a donkey was placed on the decapitated body of one murdered peasant.

Like most of the massacres, which have claimed hundreds of victims over the past 10 days, these atrocities were committed in the rugged mountains of the Relizane area, about 250 kilometres west of Algiers. But the newspapers also reported at least 26 other people killed in two attacks much closer to the capital.