Twelve terrorists affiliated with the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), which has links to al-Qaeda, killed eight Algerian municipal guards on Sunday as they took time out of their work day for prayer. It was the worst attack on government security forces since the expiration of an amnesty offer which gave immunity to any rebel who surrendered, provided they have not committed massacres, rape or bombings of public places.
The attack came three days after rebels killed the head of a provincial council near Tizi Ouzou, the main city in the Kabylie region east of Algiers. President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has vowed to crush militants refusing to surrender after the six-month amnesty expired on August 31. The government says up to 300 have surrendered since it came into force on February 28, but experts say several hundred more die-hard extremists remain. Most are believed to belong to the GSPC, which the U.S. designates a terrorist organization.
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