Algeria's 'dirty secret'

A senior Algerian officer accused Algerian secret services of being responsible for the massacre in September of 200 villagers at Beni Messous, blamed on Muslim fundamentalist guerrillas.

In an interview with the French daily Le Monde, the man, who said he was a senior army officer in Algiers' Directorate of Intelligence and Security (DRS), also repeated charges that Algerian secret services were responsible for two Paris bombs.

The officer said he was convinced that last September's massacre of more than 200 villagers at Beni Messous was carried out by secret services. "There were half a dozen barracks nearby ... The military who wanted to intervene were prevented from doing so." he said. He said the killers had brought with them an Islamic rebel so the villagers would recognise him and blame Muslim guerrillas.

He also said bomb attacks in Paris in 1995 which killed eight people at the Saint-Michel underground train station and wounded 13 at the Maison- Blanche station were carried out by Algerian services. He alleged that Boualem Bensaid, later detained by French police as a suspected Islamic Armed Group (GIA) bomber, was an army secret service officer who masterminded the attacks. - Reuters