Ninety-seven Algerian civilians were killed in new massacres at fake roadblocks, hamlet raids, a bomb explosion and other attacks across Algeria, Algerian newspapers reported yesterday.
Attackers cut the throats of 34 villagers - 19 women, 11 children aged one to eight years, and four men - on Sunday and Monday at El Faoudj hamlet in the Medea area, 70 km south of Algiers, said Le Soir d'Algerie.
The assailants booby-trapped one body which exploded later, wounding several people among relatives and rescuers who rushed to the massacre spot, the daily evening paper added.
Earlier, La Tribune newspaper said 20 people died in the massacre in Medea. It gave no further details, saying the information was "last-minute news". More than 65,000 people have been killed in violence since early 1992 when the authorities cancelled a general election in which radical Islamists had taken a commanding lead.
The latest violence brought to more than 300 the number of civilians killed in the past six days in massacres and other attacks, according to newspaper reports.
The government has announced only the deaths of 59 people in three massacres, blaming Muslim guerrillas.
Thousands of civilians, mostly peasants in remote villages or residents in poor working-class districts around or within the boundaries of Algiers, have perished in massacres this year.
Attackers cut the throats of 14 civilians or hacked them to death on Sunday when they caught them at a fake roadblock erected near Sfisef area in the western province of Sidi Bel Abbes, 380 km from Algiers, said El Watan newspaper.
Seventeen civilians were killed in a similar massacre at a fake roadblock in neighbouring Mustapha Benbrahim village the same day, said La Tribune newspaper.
In a massacre overnight on Saturday and Sunday, attackers hacked to death or slashed the throats of 11 people in El Bouacheria hamlet in Chlef region, 170 km south-west of Algiers, El Watan reported.
Ten villagers were killed in similar carnage at the weekend near Aflou area in Laghouat province, 320 km south of Algiers, said La Tribune.
A further seven people, members of two families, were killed by having their throats cut on Sunday night in Djelfa region, 100 km north-east of Aflou, said La Tribune.
Attackers slashed the throats of a father and his daughter also in Djelfa region, the newspaper added, without saying when the killing occurred.
Two workers in the state-owned gas Sonelgas plant were killed in Telagh area in Sidi Bel Abbes region, on Sunday when their car ran over a bomb, said El Watan.
No one claimed responsibility for any of the killings and no independent sources were available to give clues on the motives of the perpetrators.