Leader Gives Official Toll in Insurgency

The military-backed government insisted that it was defeating a 6-year-old Muslim insurgency but said it plans to boost local militias after massacres that claimed hundreds of lives. Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia also gave the first official death toll in the insurgency: 26,536 dead, 21,000 injured. The figures were about three times lower than press estimates. Ouyahia said the recent surge in violence stemmed from Muslim militants’ anger over alleged fraud in 1997 elections. The government’s account of the devastation came just a day after a visiting European Union delegation called for more candor from authorities. The insurgency began in 1992 after the government canceled elections that the radical Islamic Salvation Front party was expected to win.