Hadjout - Islamic militants killed at least 29 people in two Algerian hamlets, slitting their throats or burning them alive, survivors said yesterday. Most of those killed were women and children.
Word of the latest massacre came as Algeria's most hardline fundamentalist rebel group denied reports that its leader had been killed in an army operation.
Informed sources had said that Antar Zouabri, head of the Armed Islamic Group (GIA), was killed 48 hours earlier. But a statement claiming to come from the GIA said Zouabri was still alive. The text also said Zouabri and his men continued to abuse girls abducted from a school at Kolea, near where the military operation is being conducted. - (AFP)