The bodies of two men and two women were discovered by security forces in a van parked near a cemetery in Algiers, the daily Le Soir d'Algerie reported yesterday. The four victims were killed by "terrorists", the evening paper said, referring to armed Islamic militants. The van was stolen during an attack by an armed group on a villa in Frais Vallon on the outskirts of the capital last Thursday. Two people were killed during the attack and the villa was burnt down.
Earlier, another newspaper reported that gunmen killed seven civilians in the province of Medea, south of the capital Algiers, where troops combing the area for rebels shot two dead.
Attackers killed the seven people and wounded five near Labrache village in Medea, 70 kms south of Algiers, late last week, Le Matin reported.
A third report said a bus-driver saved his passengers by driving straight through a roadblock erected by an armed gang on a coastal road west of Algiers. El Watan said the driver was taking students and public-sector workers to the town of Bouharoun.
The Algerian Foreign Minister, Mr Ahmed Attaf, will discuss the crisis in Algeria with EU officials in Luxembourg today, and with members of the European Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee in Brussels tomorrow.