Algeria Plans New Assault on Islamic Fundamentalists

The Algerian government has declared total war on Islamic fundamentalists and warned the nation that normal freedoms might be temporarily curbed even more next month.

Announcing new measures in a televised statement Saturday night and saying that more might be imposed starting Friday, Prime Minister Belaid Abdesslam declared, “The state and its forces must go on the attack.”

He said he has ordered the dissolution of what he called the “spider’s web” of movements supporting the outlawed Islamic Salvation Front, known by the acronym FIS.

These include local and regional authorities, companies, charitable and cultural groups and labor movements controlled by Muslim fundamentalists.

Algeria is already under a 12-month state of emergency, imposed in February after the authorities scrapped a general election in which the front had seized a landslide lead.