Algeria hit by surge in guerrilla violence

[Al-khiyal]

ALGIERS - - The Algerian army is closing in on about 40 suspected members of an Islamist group hiding out in northeastern Algeria, part of a crackdown on insurgents who opposed a government amnesty, national media reported Tuesday.

The North African country, hoping to finally quell a bloody 14-year Islamic insurgency, has offered amnesty to fighters willing to turn themselves in.

News reports said the group targeted in the military crackdown was affiliated with the Salafist Group for Call and Combat, or GSPC, which has rejected the amnesty offer and stepped up its attacks — often targeting police.

Algerian authorities have not officially commented on the operation. Liberte newspaper said several militants were killed, but it did not specify how many.

On Saturday, helicopters and heavy artillery were used to access the densely forested region of Tamellaht, 120 kilometers (75 miles) east of Algiers, where the militants had taken refuge, Liberte said.

Newspaper l'Expression said the 40-member group, led by Charabi Omar, has been surrounded for two days.

The insurgency started in 1992 when the army canceled a second round of voting in Algeria's first multiparty legislative elections to stop a likely victory by an Islamist party. An estimated 150,000-200,000 people have died in the violence.

In a referendum last year, Algerians overwhelmingly approved a plan to reconcile the nation over the violence. The government has offered amnesty to people convicted of insurgency-related crimes, as long as they did not involve massacres, rape or explosions in public places.

Up to 300 fighters had turned themselves in at around the time the amnesty offer expired in late August, Interior Minister Nouredine Zerhouni said. Zerhouni has implied that militants can still be pardoned.

Reports: Algerian army closing in on insurgent group

[Al-khiyal]

ALGIERS (Reuters) - Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika vowed on Wednesday to crush a lingering Islamist insurgency in tough remarks signalling that an expired amnesty aimed at ending years of violence is unlikely to be renewed.

"There is no alternative for residual terrorism but to disappear and vanish," the leader of the north Africa oil and gas exporting nation said in a speech to government officials.

"We won't feel at ease until its (terrorism) final eradication, (carried out) in legitimacy and the rule of law."

The comments came two weeks after Interior Minister Noureddine Yazid Zerhouni said that authorities in Africa's second largest country would in practice still accept any rebel surrender despite the expiry of the six-month amnesty on Aug 31.

Analysts and Algerian media had said Zerhouni's comments, and similar remarks by Prime Minister Abdelaziz Belkhadem, could pave the way for Bouteflika to extend the pardon by an executive decree. Only Bouteflika has the power to extend the amnesty.

The president, making only his second public appearance in Algeria since his return from summer holidays this month, did not categorically say whether the amnesty would go on or not.

But he praised efforts made by the military and security forces to crack down on Islamic militants, and said his reconciliation policy had helped restore peace among Algerians.

"The state and people fight only the outlawed who belong to terrorist and criminal groups," Bouteflika said.

The insurgency and the military's efforts to crush it have cost up to 200,000 lives since the revolt broke out in 1992 when the authorities cancelled parliamentary elections that a now-banned radical Islamist party was poised to win.

Up to 300 guerrillas have surrendered since the amnesty came into force on February 28, according to the government. But experts estimate that several hundred more die-hard rebels are still fighting.

Most probably belong to the al Qaeda-aligned Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), which has said it is opposed to laying down its arms in exchange for the pardon.

The amnesty gives immunity to any rebel who surrenders, provided they have not committed massacres, rape or bombings of public places.

Under the peace offer, 2,200 former Islamist rebels captured in the fighting have been freed from prison and members of the security forces have been given blanket immunity from prosecution for any wrongdoing committed during the conflict.

Bouteflika vows to crush remaining rebels

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[Al-khiyal]

Tunnel used by terrorist groups discovered in Wilaya of Bouira

[Al-khiyal]

ALGIERS - - Two security officers were killed outside a mosque and an explosive derailed a freight train in separate overnight attacks in Algeria blamed on Islamic militants, officials and news reports said Saturday.

Both incidents came after Friday's first anniversary of a national reconciliation charter designed to turn the page on a bloody insurgency that wracked Algeria for much of the 1990s.

The officers were attacked by gunmen after leaving a mosque in Ouled Boudekhane, 45 kilometers (28 miles) east of Algiers, according to local police.

The explosion, meanwhile, overturned 32 cars of grain on a train traveling through Zraoua, 100 kilometers (60 miles) east of Algiers, and damaged 200 meters (yards) of the track, according to the state news agency APS. No casualties were reported.

Security officials blamed militants from the Salafist Group for Call and Combat, or GSPC, for the blast. The GSPC, linked to Al-Qaida, is still active in some pockets of the country.

The insurgency started in 1992 when the army canceled a second round of voting in Algeria's first multiparty legislative elections to stop a likely victory by an Islamist party. An estimated 150,000-200,000 people have died in the violence.

Explosive derails train and 2 officers killed in Algerian attacks

[Al-khiyal]

GSPC member killed in the desert: Malian Touaregs join the fight on terrorism campaign

Dakar - Former Tuareg rebels in Mali clashed with members of an Islamic militant group near the Algerian border last month and killed one of its leaders, a Tuareg spokesperson said on Sunday.

He told reporters by telephone the gun battle between Tuareg fighters and militants of the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), an Algerian rebel movement which has pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda, took place on September 19 400km north-west of the Malian desert town of Kidal.

"Yes, there was a clash ... The result was that one of the leaders of the GSPC was killed," said Eglasse Ag Idar, spokesperson for the Democratic Alliance for Change, which groups Malian Tuareg fighters who staged a revolt in Kidal in May.

Algerian militant killed in clash - Tuaregs

[Al-khiyal]

GSPC leader killed in desert clash named

[Al-khiyal]

Algiers - Suspected Algerian Islamic rebels shot dead four people, including two government soldiers, in the latest attack by militants who have rejected an amnesty aimed at ending years of strife, a newspaper reported on Sunday.

A third soldier was wounded when the rebels, dressed in military uniforms, staged a fake roadblock on Saturday in Boumerdes province, 50 km east of the capital Algiers, the influential independent daily El Watan said.

Armed with Kalashnikov assault rifles, the assailants, believed to belong to the al Qaeda-aligned Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), fled to a neighbouring village after carrying out the attack.

Authorities were not immediately available for comment……

Four dead in Algeria rebel attack - report