Algerian killer 'did not act alone'

Algiers (AFP) - The assassination of the Algerian president, Mohamed Boudiaf, on 29 June was not the act of a lone gunman but the work of a conspiracy that stripped away the president's protection and set him up for the kill, a commission reported on Saturday.

Spokesman Abderrezak Bara-Kamel said the thesis of a lone assassin acting out of religious zeal was 'unacceptable'. The alleged assassin, Lt Lembarek Boumaref, 26, 'did not fit the profile of a kamikaze' for Islam. Ten members of Boudiaf's personal defence corps and of the Special Intervention Group, have been arrested.

Algerian authorities reported yesterday that an Islamic fundamentalist leader and 17 others connected to an armed group had been arrested as clashes in eastern Algeria claimed four lives.