ROANOKE TIMES 

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 16, 1994                   TAG: 9403160193
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: ALGIERS, ALGERIA                                 LENGTH: Short

PAPER: COMMANDOS FREED 900 INMATES

More than 150 Muslim fundamentalist commandos were trucked into a high-secuirty prison and freed about 900 inmates after an assault in which five people died, Algerian newspapers reported Tuesday.

The reports, including one in the state-run daily El Moudjahid, provided the first detailed accounts of the attack Thursday on the Tazult prison, 250 miles southeast of Algiers.

Liberte, an independent daily, said 909 inmates escaped, including 70 who had been sentenced to death. El Moudjahid, without giving figures, said the condemned prisoners included fundamentalists sentenced by anit-terrorism courts set up since Islamic militants began an insurgency two years ago.

- Assoicated Press 


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