Islamic militants kill 10 in Algeria

Suspected Islamic militants killed eight policemen and two college teachers in an attack on a police convoy in the east Algerian region of Boumerdes, a newspaper reported on Wednesday.

The militants detonated a home-made bomb in their attack on the convoy which was escorting college students’ exam papers, and then opened fire, killing seven policemen and two teachers, said El Watan, quoting local sources.
The rebels, numbering at least 30, slit the throat of a wounded policeman, El Watan added. Two people were wounded in the attack.
The Boumerdes region, about 60 km (40 miles) east of Algiers, is the stronghold of el Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, the North African wing of al Qaeda.
In the past few years, the group’s ability to carry out major attacks has been weakened by the death or capture of leading militants and by government amnesties.
But in recent weeks, the al Qaeda affiliate has stepped up its campaign of bomb attacks and ambushes in Algeria, still recovering from years of civil conflict that broke out in 1992.
On May 26 it ambushed and killed 10 paratroopers in Biskra province, some 550 km (340 miles) east of Algiers, a week after killing five paramilitary police officers in an ambush in Medea province, 100 km east of Algiers.