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ALGIERS-Suspected Islamist rebels killed eight paramilitary gendarmes when they ambushed their convoy in eastern Algeria, a security source said on Friday.The ambush on Thursday night was the deadliest attack in Algeria since December 11 when 37 people, including 17 United Nations staff, were killed in a double suicide bombing in the capital Algiers, according to the government.The attack on the gendarmes occurred at Draa Argayen hamlet in the desert province of El Oued, some 500 km (300 miles) southeast of Algiers, the source said."Seven gendarmes were killed on the ambush spot while another gendarme succumbed to his wounds later on," the source said, without giving more details.Authorities were not immediately available for comment on the ambush and no group has claimed responsibility for it.Al Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb, previously known as Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), claimed responsibility for the December bombings, which hit U.N. offices and a court building.Violence broke out in Algeria in 1992 after the military-backed authorities scrapped a parliamentary election that an Islamist political party, the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS), was set to win.Up to 200,000 people were killed in the ensuing bloodshed.Violence had fallen since the 1990s, but a spate of suicide bombings in and around Algiers has killed scores in the past 18 months since the GSPC changed its name and declared allegiance to al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.As in the days of Noah.....
