Military

DATE=1/5/03

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=ALGERIA ATTACK (S-O)

NUMBER=2-298042

BYLINE=DALE GAVLAK

DATELINE=CAIRO

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: An Algerian newspaper, Le Matin, reports that Islamic militants ambushed a convoy of government troops, killing 43 and seriously wounding 19 others late Saturday. V-O-A's Dale Gavlak reports from Cairo on an assault said to be the deadliest for Algerian soldiers in the past five-years.

TEXT: The newspaper reports that Islamic rebels, lying in wait with bombs made from bottles of explosive gas, ambushed a military convoy in Theniet el Abed, some 320-kilometers south of the capital, Algiers.

The mountainous area is a known stronghold of the extremist Salafist Group for Call and Combat, known as G-S-P-C. The group is on the U-S blacklist of terrorist organizations and is believed to have ties to the al-Qaida terrorist network.

The dead included soldiers and members of Algeria's civilian defense force.

Before the attack, Algeria's military-backed government had been claiming it was winning its decade-long battle against Islamic militants.

/// UNVOICED OPT // The last serious assault against the Algerian military was in 1998 when 28-soldiers were killed in an ambush at Boghni, 130-kilometers east of Algiers. /// END OPT ///

Algeria has been racked by violence since early 1992 when authorities cancelled a parliamentary election that radical Islamists were poised to win. More than 120-thousand people have been killed in resulting civil strife. (SIGNED)

NEB/DG/DW/RAE