Algerian ex-militant to form party

The former head of an Algerian militant group that played a key role in the country’s bloody insurgency announced plans Saturday to form a political party.

Madani Mezrag, who was commander of the Islamic Salvation Army in the 1990s, said in a statement that he would mobilize supporters from across the country for a national congress to launch the new party.

The Islamic Salvation Army, known as the AIS, had a political wing called the Islamic Salvation Front that was poised to win parliamentary elections in 1992. But the army canceled the vote and the ensuing insurgency has left as many as 150,000 dead.

The AIS was more moderate than the Armed Islamic Group, blamed for the worst massacres. The AIS called a cease-fire in 1997, dissolved itself soon afterward and its members were later granted amnesty.

Mezrag said he would register his party with the proper authorities and expressed “determination to fully exercise our right to participate in political activity.”

Large-scale violence died down in the late 1990s, but Algeria continues to suffer scattered attacks. Today the primary attackers come from a group called Al Qaeda in the Maghreb.