Algeria Frees Some Islamic Insurgents

ALGIERS — The Algerian government freed a first group of Islamic militants Saturday after deciding to pardon or reduce sentences for more than 2,000 people detained during an insurgency in the 1990s.

Cries of joy rose from families outside the two prisons on the outskirts of Algiers, the capital, when the prisoners were released. Their exact number was unclear.

A national reconciliation plan was overwhelmingly approved in a September referendum, an effort to turn the page on an insurgency that left 150,000 dead.

As part of the reconciliation efforts, the Justice Ministry announced in recent days that it would pardon or end legal proceedings for 2,100 convicted or suspected Islamic militants. About 100 militants, convicted of more serious crimes, will have their sentences reduced. The plan foresees pardons for people convicted of crimes that did not involve massacre, rape or explosions in public places. But Algerian media reports said those released would include terrorists implicated in such crimes.

The fighting started in 1992 when the army canceled a second round of voting in Algeria’s first multiparty legislative elections, to thwart a likely victory by the now-banned Islamic Salvation Front.

Daily beheadings and massacres by Islamic extremists followed, and tens of thousands of civilians were killed. Government security forces were accused of playing at least a passive role in some of the bloodshed, which largely ended with a cease-fire in 1997.