12 ALGERIAN VILLAGERS MASSACRED.Byline: Associated Press Associated Press: see news agency. Associated Press (AP) Cooperative news agency, the oldest and largest in the U.S. and long the largest in the world. Twelve villagers were massacred early Saturday, their throats slit and their bodies left by a road south of the capital, witnesses said. No one claimed responsibility for the attack, which was not reported by authorities in the north African North Africa A region of northern Africa generally considered to include the modern-day countries of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya. North African adj. & n. Adj. 1. country. The bodies were found Saturday on a roadside 12 miles south of Algiers, said the witnesses who were travelers in the area. The victims had been killed hours earlier. A member of a local self-defense group, who would identify himself only as Farid, said the attack may have been the work of Islamic militants. For the past two months, security forces have been engaged in an offensive against Islamic militants in a 62-mile radius around the capital. The government is trying to create a favorable fa·vor·a·ble adj. 1. Advantageous; helpful: favorable winds. 2. Encouraging; propitious: a favorable diagnosis. 3. climate for legislative elections scheduled for June 5. The planned elections would be the first since a 1992 vote was canceled just as the Islamic Salvation Front Islamic Salvation Front French Front Islamique du Salut (FIS) Algerian Islamist political party. Known best by its French acronym, the organization was founded in 1989 by Ali Belhadj and Abbasi al-Madani. was poised to win. That triggered the current insurgency in·sur·gen·cy n. pl. in·sur·gen·cies 1. The quality or circumstance of being rebellious. 2. An instance of rebellion; an insurgence. insurgency, insurgence 1. , in which an estimated 60,000 people have died. |
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