Gunmen kill six soldiers in Algeria

ALGIERS, June 23: Suspected Islamist gunmen killed six soldiers in an ambush east of Algiers, a security source said today, in the latest in an escalating series of attacks apparently aimed at wrecking Algerian peace efforts.

Three soldiers were also wounded in the attack yesterday evening 15 km east of Bouira, a provincial town about 120 km east of the capital.

''The convoy was surprised by an ambush when it was returning to a military camp,'' the source said. ''Six men were killed.'' It was the largest single loss sustained by the army in several weeks.

Analysts say Islamist fighters are stepping up attacks to torpedo government efforts to end years of violence and raise morale in an insurgency long in decline.

The army, in response, has killed tens of Islamist rebels and seized dozens of weapons this month in raids on rebel hideouts in eastern Algeria.

Security experts attribute the rebel attacks to the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), radical Islamists who have rejected an amnesty offered by President Abdelaziz Bouteflika to try to end more than a decade of violence.

Wednesday's attacks happened a day after Islamist fighters shot dead five Algerian farmers and slit their throats in a mountainous area near Blida, 60 km south of Algiers.

That attack followed an earlier surge in rebel violence this month in which some 13 people were killed.

Oil exporter Algeria plunged into conflict in early 1992 after the then military-backed authorities scrapped a parliamentary election that radical Islamists were set to win.

The violence claimed up to 200,000 lives and 20 billion dollars in economic losses due to a sabotage campaign by Islamic rebels.

Thousands of Islamist guerrillas gave themselves up under a partial amnesty announced in 2000, and several dozen have come down from the hills under the latest amnesty, which entered into force in February and expires in August.

Several hundred guerrillas are believed to remain at large.

Reuters