As Algeria prepares to celebrate forty years of independence from France on July 5th, tight security measures have been put in place in Algiers, where it is feared armed extremists are planning to step up their insurgency with an urban terror campaign.
Police and army roadblocks that had been taken down in the capital have been re-erected as the decade-long civil war has returned to the heart of Algiers and its suburbs, claiming some 40 lives there in the past three weeks, AFP reported.
The authorities fear the recent spate of attacks are a signal by the two key armed extremist groups, the Armed Islamic Group (GIA) and the Salafist Group for Preaching and combat (GSPC), that they are taking their insurgency against Algeria's secular government into the heart of Algiers and its suburbs. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
