Word: algerias
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...Tizi-Ouzu, 50 miles east of the capital, killing seven guerrillas, including the regional leader of the Armed Islamic Group (G.I.A.). Two French nuns were gunned down, one fatally, as they left their home in an Algiers suburb to attend Mass, bringing the number of foreigners murdered in Algeria by Islamists to 94 in the past two years. A car bomb outside a voting station south of Algiers killed five people. Three activists from different political parties were assassinated. Then, on the eve of the election, the government announced that security forces had shot dead 16 "terrorists"--the government...
...Zeroual was capable of restoring security to Algeria, his opponents asked, why hadn't he done so in nearly two years in office? They portrayed the retired general as the continuation of a corrupt system, a charge he vehemently denied. Like other former Presidents and many of Algeria's high-ranking officers, Zeroual was born in the northeast of the country--reputed for its tough, insular people--and fought in the 1954-62 war of independence against France. He later received military training in Jordan, the Soviet Union and France, becoming Algeria's Deputy Chief of Staff...
...conclave of generals who secretly make all key decisions in Algeria brought Zeroual back as Minister of Defense in July 1993, then promoted him to the presidency six months later. He has twice initiated talks with imprisoned F.I.S. leaders Abassi Madani and Ali Belhadj, and twice blamed them for the failure of these negotiations. His unsettling fluctuation between policies of "eradicating" the fundamentalists and seeking "conciliation" with them reflects the wavering debate between hawks and doves within Algeria's armed forces...
...capital has been saturated with security forces to ensure that Algeria's sham elections come off smoothly," TIME's Lara Marlowe reports, where armed guards are patrolling the streets hoping to ensure that presidential polling goes off without a hitch on today. It won't be easy. "Algerian diplomats admit openly that the purpose of the election is to give legitimacy to the government," says Marlowe. "But how much credibility can the poll have when the main opposition, the fundamentalist Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) is not allowed to participate and its leaders are in prison? The election already resembles...
Marlowe notes that Algeria has settled into a long and exceedingly violent war in which as many 1,000 people are killed weekly in a bloody contest between the government and the Armed Islamic Group (GIA), a savage offshoot of the FIS. The violence has spilled over into France, where the GIA is believed responsible for a series of bombings this summer and whose dramatic hijacking of an Air France flight last December fanned fears that the war could destabilize all of North Africa...