Algeria violence claims more lives

Reports from Algeria say five people have been killed and six others injured in a number of attacks east of Algiers blamed on Islamic militants.

Press reports said three of those who died were civilian guards armed by the government in the mountainous Kabylie region.

Two were shot dead when gunmen opened fire on their vehicle; the other was killed by a bomb near the coastal town of Tizgirt. In the other attacks, a civil servant had his throat cut at a false roadblock near Corso, while a labourer was shot dead by an armed gang he spotted in a village in the Jijel area.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service