Algerian rebels kill 5 politicians, guards - report

[Ebusitanus]

I was wondering what kept those Algerian fundamentalists silent for so long.

http://za.today.reuters.com/news/new...S-20050718.XML

ALGIERS (Reuters) - Algerian Islamic militants set fire to forests west of the capital Algiers and then killed two municipal officials and three police guards they lured into an ambush, local newspapers reported on Monday.
The militants attacked their convoy, killing five and wounding eight others in a skirmish near Ain Defla, 150 km (90 miles) west of Algiers that lasted 20 minutes, the papers reported, citing security sources.
Algerian authorities were not available for comment.
El Khabar newspaper said members of the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) set forests near Ain Defla ablaze to draw officials to the area. Fifteen rebels hiding on both sides of a road then fired with assault rifles on the passing cars.
Among the dead was the deputy mayor of Tachta, a town near Ain Defla.
The GSPC, aligned to al Qaeda, is blamed for the killings of thousands of soldiers and civilians since its creation in 1998 to overthrow the ruling authorities and set up a purist Islamic state.
The oil producing North African country is emerging from more than a decade of Islamic-linked violence, which has killed up to 200,000 people.