Algeria on alert for rebel attacks during Ramadan

ALGIERS, Algeria (Reuters) -- Algeria, which has been torn by a bloody Islamic insurgency for eight years, was on a heightened state of alert on Sunday for the holy month of Ramadan seen by Muslim fundamentalists as the sacred period for their struggle.

"They see Ramadan as a period of Jihad and martyrdom that could bring them closer to God and enter his paradise," said Mounir Boudjemaa, an expert on Algeria's Islamist movement and a journalist at the French-language daily Le Quotidien D'Oran.

"This is why they take so many risks to die in spectacular attacks against civilians and security forces."

About 100 people were killed during Ramadan last year.

Authorities in the North African country set up roadblocks and reinforced military patrols in and around main cities and strengthened military operations in several provinces known as rebel strongholds, security officials said.

"The system was deployed two weeks ago and all security forces, including army troops, gendarmes and police, are on alert to face any situation," said an Interior Ministry official.

Algeria has been rocked by a cycle of violence and revenge in which more than 100,000 people have been killed since 1992 when the army-backed government cancelled a general election which Muslim fundamentalists were poised to win.

President Abdelaziz Bouteflika took office 18 months ago promising peace and reconciliation and granted an amnesty to militants not guilty of murder, bombings or rape.

Some 6,000 rebels took up the offer, according to government figures, but the violence did not cease as the more radical Islamic Armed Group (GIA) and Daawa al Djihad (Appeal and Struggle) vowed to continue their fight for an Islamic state.

Around 4,000 armed rebels are said to be active in small, scattered groups throughout the country, in particular in mountainous areas, according to official estimates.

And they continue to kill, albeit less frequently.

So far this month, at least 34 civilians, including women and children, have been murdered in separate gruesome raids. Many had their throats slit, some were beheaded.

Half of the victims were in Chlef province, about 200 km (120 miles) west of the capital Algiers, a GIA stronghold.

Hundreds of villagers there have asked authorities for arms to set up self-defense militias, according to non-governmental newspapers.

The official media have made no mention of this or of the recent attacks.

On Sunday, the Arabic-language daily newspaper El Acil said that at least 24 GIA rebels had been killed by troops in the past 10 days in a large-scale military operation involving artillery and helicopter gunships.

The operation, still under way and said to be the largest of its kind in four years, took place in El Gaada mountain, in Djelfa province, about 270 km (170 miles) south of Algiers.

El Acil report, which quoted security sources, was not carried by any other newspaper and could not be officially confirmed.

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