WASHINGTON (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - According to reports out of Algeria, four Russians who worked for a fertilizer company have been found murdered about six hundred kilometers from Algeria, in the north-eastern Annaba region.
Algerian security forces announced that four Russians went missing Sunday after going to pick mushrooms in a forest. Their bodies were later found with their throats cut near their automobile.
No group has claimed responsibility of the murders. Commenting on the possibility of Islamic activists possible role in the affair, correspondents in the region say that armed Islamists have not targeted foreign nationals in many years – when seven French monks were killed in 1996 - instead, choosing security personal and Algerian civilians as targets in their campaign against the government.
Since the beginning of Ramadan, violence in Algeria has increased, with the country being rocked by a cycle of massacres and revenge attacks in which more than 200 opposition fighters, civilians and members of the security forces killed.
A series of clashes between security forces and Islamists have caused the deaths of teenage students, women and children.
The conflict began in 1992 when the Algerian military, fearing an Islamist victory in a second round of parliamentary elections, cancelled the country's elections and initiated a coup d’etat.
Armed groups have killed an estimated 60,000 people, including hundreds of women and children.
