Violence continues despite tight security

Sixteen people, including eight children and four women, were killed last week during another attack in the region.

The hardline Armed Islamic Group (GIA) - one of two main rebel groups fighting the secular government - is known to operate in the area.

The GIA has stepped up its attacks since appointing Rachid Abou Tourab as its new leader in March after his predecessor Antar Zouabri was killed by security forces.

Mr Tourab said in a statement shortly after his appointment that he would pursue the movement's radical policies until Algeria was an Islamic state.

Since the beginning of the year more than 450 people, including about 150 Islamic fundamentalists, have been killed in Algeria's brutal civil war.

May elections

Despite the increasing violence - and a threatened boycott in the unstable Berber-speaking region of Kabylia - the country's military-backed authorities are determined to press ahead with the elections as scheduled.

Civil war

Erupted after 1991 election result was cancelled by army Islamists claimed enough support to take power Total death toll put at 150,000

The poll is not expected to produce any change in the political system, which the BBC's correspondent Hebah Saleh says is firmly in the grip of the country's military and intelligence circles.

Nor is the election likely to have an impact on regional security.

All serious opposition has been marginalised, and critics of the regime say Algeria is in a state of political paralysis.

Prison fire

The latest attacks come just a day after 14 prisoners were killed and 11 injured in a fire that spread through a high security jail in the country's capital Algiers.

The blaze in the Serkadji prison appeared to have been started by prisoners who set fire to their mattresses after seeing a 19-year-old inmate try to commit suicide.

Most of the detainees at the prison are Islamists sentenced to death or serving life sentences after being found guilty of terrorist activities.

They include army officer Lembarek Boumaarafi, sentenced to death for the assassination of President Mohammed Boudiaf in 1992.

It is not yet known whether Boumaraafi was among the casualties.