The body of Algerian leader Mohamed Boudiaf lay in state Wednesday, hours after a tense calm since his assassination was shattered by a machine-gun attack on a police station.
Politicians and foreign dignitaries filed through the presidential palace throughout the morning, paying respects to a war hero whose six-month effort to unify this badly divided North African country ended Monday in a storm of bullets.Suspicion has fallen on supporters of the fundamentalist Islamic Salvation Front, whose imminent election victory in January was crushed in a military crackdown. Hundreds have died in unrest and thousands were detained without charge.
PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat and the French, Belgian and Egyptian foreign ministers planned to attend funeral services in the main mosque.
The tense calm that followed the killing broke late Tuesday when unknown gunmen in a van sprayed a police station with machine gunfire, witnesses said. Police fired back and gave chase. It was unknown if there were casualties.