Groups Attack 2 Algerian Villages; 30 Die, 70 Injured

Armed groups attacked two Algerian villages, killing at least 30 people and wounding 70 others, hospital sources said Monday.

The attackers fired mortar shells and bombs Sunday night on Khemis Miliana, a town about 50 miles west of the capital, Algiers. Fifteen people died and 40 were injured, said the sources.

The bombardment struck a school and several homes, the newspaper Le Matin reported.

At the same time, six miles to the north, about 40 armed men killed 15 people in the village of Ain N’sour. Most of the victims were stabbed, hospital sources said.

An additional 30 people were wounded, many by gunfire. News reports said the army was searching the area for the killers.

The two attacks came during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, a time when bloodshed has intensified in previous years of Algeria’s nearly 7-year-old insurgency.

Islamic militants battling the government are routinely blamed by police for such attacks.

The violence, which has left 75,000 people dead, was sparked when the military-backed government scrapped a January 1992 parliamentary election that the fundamentalist Islamic Salvation Front was expected to win.