A roadside bomb attack on a gendarmerie patrol killed two policemen and a civilian in Chabet El Ameur southeast of Boumerdes, the first attack in the town in nearly five years. Security sources estimate that fewer than 20 members of the al Qaeda-affiliated GSPC remain in Boumerdes province. The military killed two Islamists and seized rifles and grenades during a raid in Gouraya in Tipaza province last week. The Minister of Religious Affairs pardoned 30 imams in eastern Algeria who had refused to perform funeral prayers after the crash of a military plane in the area that killed 77 people, mostly soldiers and their families.
