Two Algerian Women Attacked

Gunmen seriously wounded one of state television’s few female reporters and killed her sister Monday, another sign that both women and journalists have become targets in Algeria’s 3-year-old civil war.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for killing Houria Hammadi, 36, and wounding Rachida Hammadi, 32. But one of Algeria’s most violent fundamentalist Muslim groups, the Armed Islamic Group, last month threatened to kill television and radio journalists unless they stopped working.

The Armed Islamic Group and other groups accuse state-run media of collaborating with the militarybacked government to suppress Muslim groups that are fighting to establish an Islamic state.