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{{Short description|1997 mass killing in Larbaa, Algeria}}
{{no footnotes|date=February 2014}}
{{Infobox civilian attack
| title            = Si Zerrouk massacre
| location         = Si Zerrouk, [[Algeria]]
| date             = 27 July 1997
| partof           = [[Algerian Civil War]]
| fatalities       = 47–58
| perpetrator      = [[Armed Islamic Group of Algeria]]
| numparts         = 30–100
}}

{{Campaignbox Algerian Civil War}}{{Algerian massacres of 1997}}
The '''Si Zerrouk massacre''' took place in the [[Si Zerrouk]] neighborhood in the south of [[Larbaa, Blida|Larbaa]] in [[Algeria]] on 27 July 1997. About 50 people were killed.

==Background==
In 1997, Algeria was at the peak of a civil conflict that had begun after the military's cancellation of 1992 elections set to be won by the [[Islamic Salvation Front|Islamic Salvation Front (FIS)]]. Two major Islamist guerrilla groups, [[Armed Islamic Group|Armed Islamic Group (GIA)]] and [[Islamic Salvation Army|AIS]], and several minor ones, were fighting the government. [[Larbaa, Blida|Larbaa]] was a major center for the FIS's armed wing, the [[Islamic Salvation Army]] (AIS), which the GIA had recently declared war on; [[Mustapha Kartali]], a former GIA chief who had split from him in 1995 and become head of the AIS's ''[[Katibat Errahamane]]'' brigade, was based in the area.

==Massacre==
On the afternoon of 27 July 1997, the electricity went out. That night, a number of guerrillas armed with shotguns, knives, and sabres (30 according to ''[[The Economist]]'', 100 according to ''Liberte'') stormed into the area by night and started breaking into homes and cutting the residents' throats, killing men, women, and babies, and burning some victims alive. They also blew up their houses. About 50 people (most papers reported 47; ''Le Matin'' reported 58) were killed.

The [[massacre]] was presumed to be the work of the [[Armed Islamic Group|GIA]]. According to Robert Moore of ''[[The Observer]]'' as quoted by [http://www.zmag.org/zmag/articles/jan99bouzed.htm Ahmed Bouzid] in [[Zmag]]: "in the village of Larbaa the attack took place 300 yards from a large barracks." ''[[The New York Times]]'' confirms that "the electricity had been cut in the town before the assault and the attack occurred close to an army barracks" (Roger Cohen, "Despite freeing of a militant, no letup in Algerian strife", ''The New York Times'', 2 August 1997, as cited by [http://www.algeria-watch.de/mrv/mrvmass/halte.htm Algeria-Watch]).

==See also==
*[[List of massacres in Algeria]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*[http://www.economist.com/research/articlesBySubject/displayStory.cfm?story_ID=152912&subject=Algeria Economist]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20050116002654/http://www.arabicnews.com/ansub/Daily/Day/970731/1997073131.html Arabic News]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20041216093444/http://www.arabicnews.com/ansub/Daily/Day/970728/1997072818.html Arabic News]
{{coord missing|Algeria}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Si-Zerrouk Massacre}}
[[Category:Massacres during the Algerian Civil War]]
[[Category:1997 murders in Algeria]]
[[Category:Stabbing attacks in 1997]]
[[Category:Massacres in 1997]]
[[Category:July 1997 in Africa]]
[[Category:History of Blida Province]]
[[Category:Mass stabbings in Algeria]]
[[Category:Knife attacks in Algeria]]
[[Category:Terrorist incidents involving knife attacks in Africa]]
[[Category:Terrorist incidents in Algeria in the 1990s]]
[[Category:Terrorist incidents in Africa in 1997]]
[[Category:Residential building bombings in Algeria]]
[[Category:1997 building bombings]]
[[Category:Deaths by firearm in Algeria]]
[[Category:July 1997 crimes]]
[[Category:Residential building arson attacks in Algeria]]
[[Category:Arson in 1997]]