Radicals Are Blamed in Massacre of 22

Armed men massacred a family of 22 in a rural area southwest of Algeria’s capital, authorities said. Security forces mounted “a vast search operation” for the killers, who slashed the throats of the victims near El Bayadh, 250 miles southwest of Algiers, a statement said. Residents of El Bayadh contacted by telephone blamed the killings on the radical Armed Islamic Group. Several newspapers also reported the killings of at least a dozen members of Algeria’s security forces in two ambushes last week and the death of Nadir Ben Megata, a Muslim extremist emir, in a third ambush.