Militants 'killed four Algerians'

ALGIERS (Reuter) - Algerian Islamic militants raked two paramilitary police vehicles and an army ambulance with gunfire yesterday, killing three gendarmes and a soldier, according to police.

The official news agency, APS, quoted gendamerie headquarters as saying the militants attacked the convoy on the highway linking the village of Hamdania and the town of Medea, 70km (45 miles) south of Algiers. The ambulance was being driven by the soldier while the three gendarmes were in the two other vehicles, APS said.

Algeria's latest fundamentalist violence was reported a day after Muslim militants shot dead a student who tried to stop them taking his father's shotgun, the gendarmerie said. 'The victim was mortally wounded by bullets . . . as he tried to fight the terrorists beating up his father to seize his hunting rifle,' said the gendarmerie headquarters, quoted by APS.