Prison Escapes Algeria

Security forces scouring the mountains of eastern Algeria killed five men and arrested 39 Saturday in a manhunt for Muslim gunmen and 900 fellow Islamists they freed from a fortress prison. Algerian state radio, ending official silence on the breakout, said the forces were combing the rugged Aures region where Algerian guerrillas once held out against French forces after launching the war that led to independence in 1962. The Islamists included 280 plucked from Death Row.

Security forces scouring the mountains of eastern Algeria killed five men and arrested 39 Saturday in a manhunt for Muslim gunmen and 900 fellow Islamists they freed from a fortress prison. Algerian state radio, ending official silence on the breakout, said the forces were combing the rugged Aures region where Algerian guerrillas once held out against French forces after launching the war that led to independence in 1962. The Islamists included 280 plucked from Death Row.