5 Reported Dead in Algerian Prayer Service Clashes

Muslim fundamentalists said Saturday that five people had died in bloody clashes with police at prayer services a day earlier, the deadliest unrest since the military took power.

The Islamic Salvation Front said in a communique that clashes broke out between citizens and security forces in 12 of Algeria’s 48 states Friday, the Muslim holy day.

At least five people were killed--including two infants asphyxiated by tear gas--the Salvation Front said, and 109 were arrested. Most of those taken into custody were imams, or religious leaders, loyal to the fundamentalist party.

The Salvation Front said violence continued Saturday at Oran, the country’s second-largest city; at Constantine, the third-largest city; and at Laghouat in the south.

The reports could not be independently verified, but they bolstered official accounts of widespread violence Friday as police tried to enforce a new law barring crowds from gathering outside mosques.

Coupled with a law prohibiting political discourse at mosques, it deprives the Salvation Front of a major tool in communicating with its followers.

Also Saturday, newspapers reported that the country’s military rulers may soon fire Prime Minister Sid Ahmed Ghozali, who organized Algeria’s first free parliamentary elections that nearly brought Muslim radicals to power.