Four dead in Algeria rebel attack-report

ALGIERS, Oct 8 (Reuters) Suspected Algerian Islamic rebels shot dead four people, including two government soldiers, in the latest attack by militants who have rejected an amnesty aimed at ending years of strife, a newspaper reported today.

A third soldier was wounded when the rebels, dressed in military uniforms, staged a fake roadblock yesterday in Boumerdes province, 50 km (30 miles) east of the capital Algiers, the influential independent daily El Watan said.

Armed with Kalashnikov assault rifles, the assailants, believed to belong to the al Qaeda-aligned Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), fled to a neighbouring village after carrying out the attack.

Authorities were not immediately available for comment.

President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has vowed to crush militants still refusing to surrender under a six-month amnesty that 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 U.S. 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 PB DB2009