Algeria Blames Foreign Powers for Attacks

ALGIERS — Addressing a nation engulfed by a recent wave of terror that has left 250 dead, Algeria’s president blamed foreign powers Friday for trying to destabilize the country.

As President Liamine Zeroual spoke, witnesses reported the latest atrocity: 40 people massacred in Ouled Ali, a village 60 miles south of Algiers.

The victims’ throats were slit and some were decapitated, said the witnesses, who were travelers in the area. They spoke on condition of anonymity.

Islamic militants had threatened to make this Ramadan, or Muslim holy month, a bloody one. With the latest deaths, 250 people--mostly civilians--have been killed and 500 wounded since Ramadan began Jan. 10.

On Thursday, 45 people had their throats slit in three separate attacks, and a suburban mayor was shot to death.

An armed group attacked a farm on the southern edge of the capital and slit the throats of 15 people, including 10 women and two children, sources said.

Earlier that day, an armed group slit the throats of 26 people in Benramdane, a village 15 miles south of Algiers.

Four members of a policeman’s family were slain in the same fashion at their home in Baraki, a suburb southeast of the capital, family members said.

The mayor of Bachdjarah, a suburb south of Algiers, was also slain Thursday, his family said.

There has been no claim of responsibility for any of the attacks, but blame has fallen on Islamic militants waging a 5-year-old insurgency that has left more than 60,000 people dead.

Zeroual’s address was the first time any official has commented on the recent resurgence in violence.

He did not specify the foreign powers he was referring to in his speech on state television. In the past, he has chastised European governments for harboring sympathizers of Islamic militants, and countries such as Iran and Sudan for backing them.

“In this holy month of Ramadan, a month of forgiveness and worship, Algeria faces barbaric, cowardly terrorism,” Zeroual said.

“These barbaric acts were committed by the same gangs known to all, the gangs who have hidden themselves behind a call for peace,” he said.

“Those who support terrorism, these groups, these voices that express themselves in favor of terror, I tell them that they cannot get involved in our country’s affairs.”

The president also said the attackers were striking at the most helpless people in isolated regions. He said they were getting more violent with the approach of legislative elections, planned for June.

Islamic militants oppose new elections because they would give Zeroual legitimacy and would override a 1992 vote that the army canceled. The 1992 army action triggered the current insurgency.