Algerian Troops Tighten Security
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ALGIERS — Algerian security forces ringed mosques in Muslim fundamentalist strongholds Friday, searching and stopping people heading to prayers.
One cleric said more than 500 people have been arrested in the last few days.
Fundamentalist leaders denounced Algeria’s new military-backed ruling council and appealed for calm, saying they would prevail in the end.
The weekly prayer services, the main forum for fundamentalists’ political discourse, came a day after the swearing-in of the ruling High Council of State.
Headed by Mohammed Boudiaf, a 72-year-old war hero returning from nearly three decades of exile, the five-member panel took office Thursday, the day that second-round voting for a new Parliament was to have been held.
The elections--Algeria’s first free parliamentary vote--were canceled to head off the expected victory of the fundamentalist Islamic Salvation Front, which held an overwhelming lead after a first round of voting in late December.
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