Algerian rebels derail train in bomb attack

ALGIERS, Sep 30 (Reuters) Suspected Algerian Islamic rebels blew up a railway line, derailing a cargo train but causing no casualties, the official APS news agency said today.

It quoted a security source as saying the home-made bomb exploded along the railway line in Bouira province, 120 km east of the capital Algiers, yesterday night.

The source said the attack was a ''criminal act'', but did not identify those behind the blast in an area seen as a stronghold for the al Qaeda-aligned Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC).

The attack took place three days after President Abdelaziz Bouteflika vowed to crush Islamist militants still rejecting to surrender under a six-month amnesty which expired on August 31.

Up to 300 guerrillas have surrendered since the amnesty came into force on February 28, according to the government. But experts say several hundred more die-hard rebels are still fighting.

Most are believed to belong to GSPC, which is on the US list of terrorist organisations.

The amnesty gives immunity to any rebel who surrenders, provided they have not committed massacres, rape or bombings of public places.

The insurgency and the military's efforts to crush it have cost up to 200,000 lives since the revolt broke out in 1992 when the authorities cancelled parliamentary elections that a now-banned radical Islamist party was poised to win.

REUTERS SHB KN1936