Reports Say Raiders Killed 100 Militants

Government security forces killed about 100 Muslim militants during a raid on a clandestine meeting southwest of the capital, reports said. French LCI television said the raid on the Armed Islamic Group, the most feared militant faction, occurred in the rugged Attatba region near the town of Tipasa. Residents of the coastal town 60 miles southwest of the capital, Algiers, denied any knowledge of such a raid. They refused to be named for fear of reprisals. The raid also was reported in Algiers’ French-language newspaper L’Authentique, considered to have sources close to the government. It said the militants had been responsible for the recent killing of 14 people in a nearby town. The reports did not say when the government raid took place.