Algerian massacre: 26 dead

The country has recently seen an upsurge in violence

At least 26 people have been killed in a new massacre in Algeria - the biggest single attack so far this year.

Eleven of those killed were children, with at least one victim only six months old.

The atrocity happened on Saturday night in a shanty town near Berrouaghia, 60 miles south of the capital, Algiers.

Women grieve for the dead

Several victims were found some distance from the site of the massacre, apparently killed as they tried to flee the bloodbath.

The armed group had entered the homes of six impoverished families, machine-gunning some of the victims while slitting the throats of others.

The attack happened in an area where the hardline GIA, or Armed Islamic Group, is active.

A night watchman at a nearby factory heard gunfire and sounded an alarm that drew government security forces, the Associated Press news agency reported.

The attackers fled into a wood after setting fire to three of the dead.

Upsurge in killings

Saturday's massacre followed the killing last Thursday of 13 civilians in three attacks by armed groups, and brought to more than 280 the number of people killed in violence in Algeria since the start of the year.

Bouteflika: Amnesty offer to rebels was rejected

In late January, 24 people were killed when an armed group broke into their homes while they slept. That followed the massacre of 23 people earlier in the month.

The GIA rejected a conditional amnesty offered by President Abdelaziz Bouteflika in 1999, as did a group called the GSPC, which has focused its attacks on military targets.

Since the latest upsurge in violence which began late last year, President Bouteflika has faced a wave of criticism over his failure to end the bloodshed.

Last month he vowed to to fight militants "with an iron fist".

Army accused

The conduct of the army in the conflict has also come under the spotlight again, after recent revelations by a former Algerian military officer, Habib Souaidia, who now lives in France.

In a book entitled The Dirty War, he says Algerian troops disguised as rebels participated in massacres of civilians during the 1990s, as well as torturing Islamists to death.

The Algerian Government has so far resisted demands by human-rights activists for a full public inquiry.