Islamist militants kill 24 paramilitary policemen escorted chinese workers

Islamist militants have killed 24 Algerian paramilitary policemen late on Wednesday. They were ambushed near the settlement of Mansoura, east of the capital where the convoy was reportedly escorting Chinese workers although there has been no official confirmation of the incident. Algeria's militants, many veterans of the 1990s civil war, operate under the name al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. The paramilitary police were reported to be escorting Chinese contractors to a motorway project; it is not yet known if any of the workers were injured in the attack. Two improvised devices had been planted on the road approximately 124 miles east of the capital, Algiers, and then opened fire on the convoy as the explosives went off.