Algiers - Algeria's most radical guerrilla faction, the Armed Islamic Group (GIA), has claimed responsibility for the killing of a Berber singer, Lounes Matoub, according to a GIA statement published in Algerian newspapers and abroad.
The murder last week caused riots in Berber-dominated north-eastern Kabylie, in which at least four protesters were killed and scores wounded.
A bomb ripped through a farmhouse in Ouled Bey, a hamlet 70km (45 miles) south of Algiers, during the night, killing four people and wounding 14, the security forces reported in a statement carried by the official Algerian news agency. Algiers newspapers reported that troops killed 45 Muslim rebels over the past three days in Chrea, a mountainous area.
