Seventeen people were killed and three wounded by armed extremists at a fake security checkpoint in northern Algeria, a hospital source said Friday, updating a previous toll of nine dead.
The attack occurred late Wednesday on the road between Hacine and Mohammedia, some 350 kilometers (215 miles) southwest of the capital Algiers.
On Thursday, the daily Le Matin reported that nine people were killed when a large number of assailants intercepted two vehicles at the checkpoint, adding that the wounded were hospitalized in Mohammedia.
Seventeen people were killed in the same area in a similar attack on August 12.
The region is a stronghold of the Armed Islamic Group (GIA), one of two Islamic rebel movements that remain active in Algeria, having rejected President Abdelaziz Bouteflika's amnesty plan under which thousands of fighters laid down their arms.
More than 100,000 people, mainly civilians, have been killed in Algeria's civil war since 1992, when the army interrupted elections that the now outlawed Islamic Salvation Front was certain to win -- ALGIERS (AFP)
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