ALGIERS (AFP) - Sixteen people have been killed in an attack by an armed group of suspected Islamist militants in southern Algeria, state television said.
The report said Friday's attack had happened near the town of Medea, some 80 kilometres (50 miles) south of Algiers, but the circumstances of the attack were not given and the victims not identified.
Security sources told AFP that the attack happened around 1600 GMT as the victims were driving along a mountain road linking El Hamdania to Bouarfa near Medea.
The attackers opened fire on the vehicles before then setting them alight, and nine charred bodies had been found, they added.
Earlier Saturday Algerian newspapers reported that eight people had been killed and four wounded on Friday evening when Islamist militants stopped a vehicle carrying fans to a football match in the capital Algiers at a checkpoint.
It is the first attack by armed Islamic militants since the start of the holy fasting month of Ramadan, when rebels often step up their attacks in Algeria.
According to a tally based on official and press reports, more than 80 people have been killed since the start of September in unrest involving the extremist Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), the main group that continues to carry out attacks.
The Islamic extremist rebellion has claimed some 150,000 lives across the country since 1992.
10/23/2004 - 14:18 GMT - AFP