ALGIERS, Algeria – Security forces found 28 bodies, most of them children, in a secluded cave used as a hideout by an Algerian Islamic militant group, a newspaper reported Sunday.
The bodies were discovered Saturday in the Beni Khatab mountains, about 280 miles east of the capital, where authorities were hunting suspected members of the al-Qaida-linked Salafist Group for Call and Combat, the El Chourouk newspaper reported.
It was unclear how long ago the victims had died. There were 21 children, four women and three militants, the paper said. Security forces did not immediately confirm the report.
The North African nation's insurgency has waned in recent years, with far fewer killings and kidnappings.
The insurgency began in 1992, when the army canceled Algeria's first multiparty legislative elections to thwart a likely victory by a now-banned Muslim fundamentalist party. The violence has killed an estimated 120,000 people.
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