Algiers - Six people were killed and 61 injured yesterday when a bomb exploded in a market in Hassi Bahbah, in the Djelfa region of Algeria, security services said.
The Interior Minister, Mr Abdelmalek Sellal, and the Health Minister, Mr Yahia Guidoum, had visited the scene, and "most of the injured would be leaving hospital after treatment", the security services added. Hassi Bahbah is 270 km south of the capital Algiers.
Last Friday, seven members of a local self-defence force were killed and three injured in another bomb attack in the same area. Violence has suddenly flared in Algeria in recent days in the run-up to a referendum on September 16th on a "civil concord" that would give a partial amnesty to Islamic extremists not guilty of violent crimes.