2 Killed in Algerian Mass Rally

Police fired water cannons and tear gas at rioters Thursday as hundreds of thousands of protesters marched on Algeria’s presidential palace demanding greater democracy and denouncing unrest. Two people were killed and more than 400 were injured in the turmoil.

Ethnic Berbers organized the mass protest against discrimination, and it was joined by opposition parties demanding greater freedoms, presenting Algeria’s military-backed government with a growing challenge as it battles the separate threat of an Islamic insurgency.

Demonstrators threw stones at riot police blocking their path to the palace, and security forces fired a truck-mounted water cannon and volleys of tear gas. Other rioters, some carrying knives, hatchets or iron bars, smashed building facades--including the glass front of the Sofitel, the most luxurious hotel in Algiers, the capital.

The line of demonstrators stretched down a main highway into the city. Protesters chanted and carried banners reading, “You can’t kill us, we are already dead!” and denounced hogra, a word used to refer to injustice and abuse of power. Many had painted their faces with a cross-like symbol used by Berber nationalists on flags.

Hospital officials said 400 to 500 people were injured in the demonstration. The two dead were journalists who were hit by a bus fleeing a depot that had been set on fire, government official Mohammed Guendil said on television.

The Berbers, who claim to be the original inhabitants of North Africa, have had tense relations with Algiers for decades.