![image: [ BBC Despatches ]](/olmedia/45000/images/_47195_correspondent.jpg){kind=small}
An Algerian newspaper says scores of people have been killed in an attack on a village near Algiers. The newspaper, Liberte, says dozens of families were slaughtered at the village of Sidi Hammad. So far there has been no official confirmation, but the government has blamed similar attacks on armed Islamic militants fighting the state. At least 600 people have been killed in massacres in western Algeria in the last two weeks. North Africa correspondent Heba Saleh report.
The newspaper Liberte says dozens of families have been wiped out and that two big hospitals in Algiers are overflowing with the wounded. The attackers, a team of armed men, were reported to have descended on the isolated hamlet of Sidi Hammad just after the villagers had broken their Ramadan fast and were assembled to watch a film in a local hall.
The newspaper gives few details, but says that first an explosive device was thrown into the hall, and then the fleeing villagers were massacred. The latest killings come in the wake of a series of attacks in western Algeria which left hundreds of people dead.
That carnage had prompted a chorus of international concern and renewed calls from both the United States and international human rights organisations for an investigation to establish the truth about the massacres. The Algerian authorities, who blame armed Islamic militants for the killings, have rejected calls for an investigation saying that it would constitute interference in their affairs.
They have also denied allegations that the security forces may have a hand in the killings which happen mostly in areas known to be supportive of the Islamists. A delegation from the European Union is to be sent to Algiers within the next few days, though the Algerian authorities say that the visit has been allowed only on condition that it focuses on discussing ways of helping Algeria combat terrorism.
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