Si Zerrouk massacre - Misplaced Pages

1997 mass killing in Larbaa, Algeria

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Si Zerrouk massacre
Part of Algerian Civil War
Location	Si Zerrouk, Algeria
Date	27 July 1997
Deaths	47–58
Perpetrator	Armed Islamic Group of Algeria
No. of participants	30–100

v t e Algerian Civil War
Beginning of war 1991–1994 1990 Algerian local elections Guemmar 1991 legislative elections 1992 coup Assassination of Mohamed Boudiaf Algiers Blida Assassinations of journalists Escalation 1994–1996 Tazoult Tenes Ain Allah Berrouaghia Air France Flight 8969 Algiers Sundus Serkadji Ain Defla Ghardaïa France Massacres and reconciliation 1996–1999 Algiers Tibhirine Tamesguida Thalit Haouch Khemisti Omaria Chouardia 1997 legislative elections M'sila Si Zerrouk Oued El-Had and Mezouara Souhane Beni Ali massacre Rais Beni Messous Guelb El-Kebir Bentalha Sidi Daoud Sid El-Antri 1st Relizane 2nd Relizane Sidi-Hamed Oued Bouaicha Tadjena Defeat of the GIA 1999–2002 1999 presidential election Beni Ounif 1999 Algerian Civil Concord referendum Assassination of Abdelkader Hachani Killing of Antar Zouabri Sahara Sétif

Algerian Civil War

Beginning of war 1991–1994

Escalation 1994–1996

Massacres and reconciliation 1996–1999

Defeat of the GIA 1999–2002

Algerian massacres in 1997

Massacres in which over 50 people were killed:

Thalit massacre	3–4 April
Haouch Khemisti massacre	21 April
Daïat Labguer (M'sila) Massacre	16 June
Si-Zerrouk massacre	27 July
Oued El-Had and Mezouara massacre	3 August
Souhane massacre	20–21 August
Beni-Ali massacre	26 August
Rais massacre	29 August
Beni-Messous massacre	5–6 September
Guelb El-Kebir massacre	19 September
Bentalha massacre	22 September
Sid El-Antri massacre	23–24 December
Wilaya of Relizane massacres	30 December

1998 →

The Si Zerrouk massacre took place in the Si Zerrouk neighborhood in the south of Larbaa in Algeria on 27 July 1997. About 50 people were killed.

Background

In 1997, Algeria was at the peak of a civil conflict that had begun after the military's cancellation of 1992 elections set to be won by the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS). Two major Islamist guerrilla groups, Armed Islamic Group (GIA) and AIS, and several minor ones, were fighting the government. Larbaa was a major center for the FIS's armed wing, the Islamic Salvation Army (AIS), which the GIA had recently declared war on; Mustapha Kartali, a former GIA chief who had split from him in 1995 and become head of the AIS's Katibat Errahamane brigade, was based in the area.

Massacre

On the afternoon of 27 July 1997, the electricity went out. That night, a number of guerrillas armed with shotguns, knives, and sabres (30 according to The Economist, 100 according to Liberte) stormed into the area by night and started breaking into homes and cutting the residents' throats, killing men, women, and babies, and burning some victims alive. They also blew up their houses. About 50 people (most papers reported 47; Le Matin reported 58) were killed.

The massacre was presumed to be the work of the GIA. According to Robert Moore of The Observer as quoted by Ahmed Bouzid in Zmag: "in the village of Larbaa the attack took place 300 yards from a large barracks." The New York Times confirms that "the electricity had been cut in the town before the assault and the attack occurred close to an army barracks" (Roger Cohen, "Despite freeing of a militant, no letup in Algerian strife", The New York Times, 2 August 1997, as cited by Algeria-Watch).

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External links

Categories:

Background

Massacre

See also

References

External links