TWENTY animal herders were massacred overnight at Brezina, about 400 kilometres southwest of Algiers. The authorities did not identify those held responsible for the attack, but said: “A major search operation has been launched for those behind this criminal act.” The attack bore the hallmarks of Muslim fundamentalist violence engulfing the north African country, but the authorities did not use the term “terrorist,” which is generally employed to describe attacks by armed Islamic extremists. The slaughter occurred in highlands used by pastoral farmers in the El-Bayadh region. This is the first attack in several weeks to be officially reported, although private Algerian newspapers have carried almost daily reports of fresh killings blamed on Islamic fundamentalists since the end of an amnesty offer on January 13.