Islamic extremist guerrillas killed seven people and wounded 11 in a raid on a coastal resort town near Algiers, security forces and witnesses said Wednesday.
The victims died "in a cowardly attack by a terrorist group" on Tuesday night at Zeralda, the security forces said in a brief statement, using their standard term for armed Islamic extremists but giving no details.
Witnesses said that the killers first murdered a couple on the small town's beach and then attacked a restaurant in a tourist complex, where they massacred five people and wounded 11.
Two "ordinary-looking" men aged under 30 entered the Tennis Club restaurant at around 10:30pm carrying Kalashnikov assault rifles hidden under their bathing towels, witnesses told AFP.
The gunmen opened fire on people sitting at tables on the terrace, killing four of them and wounding others.
They shot dead a woman who was coming in as they fled and then disappeared into a nearby wood, witnesses added.
The couple on the beach appeared to have been killed by accomplices to create a diversion before the attack on the restaurant, according to some accounts.
The Zeralda tourist complex includes several hotels, one of which is owned by Kuwaitis, and is near a holiday centre for members of the armed forces and their families.
Since August 1, more than 160 people have been killed in attacks by armed gangs on civilians, according to a toll compiled from reports by the security forces and in the independent press.
Tourism Minister Lakhdar Dorbani and the head of Algeria's first military region, General Fodhil Cherif, went to the scene of Tuesday's attack shortly after it occurred, witnesses said.
An armed gang killed seven people and wounded two in an attack on a beach on Sunday night near the eastern city of Annaba, 600 kilometres from Algiers.
Islamic militants have been blamed for the deaths of at least 100,000 people since 1992, when the army cancelled elections that the now outlawed Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) was certain to win.
The latest upsurge in violence comes amid reports that the government has renewed discreet overtures to the FIS. Negotiations are strongly opposed both by radical armed Muslim groups and hardliners in the military.
The latest violence has included the first bomb attack in two years in Algiers. Last Wednesday, 34 people were wounded in a blast in the teeming Casbah district, the old quarter of the capital.
Several other bombs have been defused.
The two movements blamed for the ongoing violence are the Armed Islamic Group (GIA) and the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC).
The armed wing of the FIS was dissolved under an amnesty in 1999 -- ZERALDA, Algeria (AFP)
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
