ALGIERS, Dec 25 (AFP) - Fifteen people were killed in fighting with armed Islamists in Algeria, press reports said Saturday, bringing a three-day toll to almost 50.
The latest incidents included the massacre of a family of five who had their throats slit when a gang burst into their home at Laghouat, 400 km (250 miles) south of Algiers. An injured 16-year-old escaped and raised the alarm, Le Matin and El Khabar dailies reported, without specifying exactly when the attack took place.
Other casualties included two men who were shot dead on Wednesday night and then burned in their car near Blida, a garrison town 50 km (30 miles) south of the capital, at one of the fake checkpoints that Islamists model on those of the security forces.
A child had his legs blown off in a bomb blast at Ain Tagourait, 70 km (45 miles) west of the capital, the press reported.
A gendarme was killed on Friday when four armed men attacked his patrol at Mahelma, 30 km (20 miles) west of Algiers, but his colleagues gunned down all the assailants. Security forces also shot three Islamists in the western Tlemcen and Chlef regions.
These latest figures reported Saturday did not include the slaughter of almost 30 people on Friday at a fake road-block on a highway near Khemis Miliana, 80 km (50 miles) west of Algiers. Survivors at the scene said that the gunmen riddled a mini-bus and four cars with automatic gunfire before setting them on fire.
"A group of men in military uniform wanted to check us," one said. "We realized very quickly that they were armed Islamists because when we got close to them we saw they were wearing canvas shoes instead of the combat boots the army wear."
In Algiers, officials put the toll from that attack at 28 dead and 10 wounded.
Such road-blocks strike increasing fear into Algerians, who are now terrified of traveling, especially as many of the attacks take place in daylight.
President Abdelaziz Bouteflika is seeking to end to a brutal civil war, in which at least 100,000 people are estimated to have died in the past seven years, by offering an amnesty to Islamic fighters who lay down their weapons.
But since a July 13 law offering pardons to those Islamic fighters not implicated in attacks, rapes or bomb attacks, more than 750 people have been killed, including 200 last month, by suspected Islamic extremists.
The amnesty offer expires on Jan. 13.
Two groups are leading the fight against the president's efforts: the Armed Islamic Group (GIA) and the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), whose combined strength is estimated at between 5,000 and 7,000 men.
The GIA makes no distinction between military and civilian targets but the GSPC says it only attacks the security forces.
According to the authorities, about 1,000 fighters have so far taken advantage of the amnesty.
Since the beginning of Ramadan on Dec. 9, armed Islamists have killed about 120 people, wounded around 50 and kidnapped a dozen others.
Bouteflika has acknowledged that such attacks are not close to ending, and has said several times recently that he will be merciless toward Islamists who continue attacks after the amnesty offer expires.
Bouteflika's regime and its predecessors are responsible for the bloodshed. They canceled free elections in 1992 that the Islamists were poised to win.
