79 Dead in Flare-Up of Pre-Vote Violence

In a flare-up of preelection violence, suspected Muslim rebels killed at least 79 civilians in three massacres, a roadblock attack and a bombing, Algerian news reports said. Most victims of the attacks--all in towns surrounding the capital, Algiers--were hacked to death, the reports said. Thirty-one people--including two babies, 11 children and eight women--were slaughtered in the worst of the attacks, at Larba, Liberte newspaper said. In other violence, assailants hacked 30 civilians to death in Lakhdaria; cut the throats of 10 shepherds near Laghouat; exploded a bomb at a Blida market, killing four; and cut the throats of four civilians at a fake roadblock near Bouira, reports said.