Militants descended on a village school, shooting or slashing to death 11 women teachers and the male instructor who tried to stop the massacre as students watched in horror, witnesses said Monday.
"First I thought they were police, but then I saw one of them take out a sword," said Fatiha Boubekri, a 14-year-old student. "He grabbed my teacher by the hair to cut her throat, the blood spurted toward the sky, and I fainted."The deaths were among 31 civilians slain in two weekend attacks, while security forces killed 11 members of the Armed Islamic Group that is waging a bloody terror campaign aimed at destabilizing the government.
While militants have targeted schools with bombings and killed some schoolgirls who refused to wear veils, Saturday's school massacre was the first of its type during the 5 1/2-year-old Muslim insurgency.
The attack at Ain Adden School took place in Sfisef, a village 260 miles southwest of Algiers near Sidi Bel Abes.
Most of the students fled the eight attackers, but not before they heard the attackers shout, "Blood, blood, blood, destruction, destruction, destruction," a rallying cry of the Armed Islamic Group.
The attackers, who were disguised in various uniforms and arrived in a van, also killed a driver and three school administrators.
Federico Mayor, head of the Paris-based U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, condemned the attack as an "odious and cowardly act."
On Friday, militants attacked El Hadj, a village on a high plateau 120 miles south of Algiers, killing 15 people, travelers said upon arriving Monday in Algiers.