In 1998, Algeria was near the peak of a brutal civil war, which had begun after the military's cancellation of 1992 elections, which were about to be won by the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS).
The arid, inaccessible, poor Ouarsenis Mountains, about 150 miles west of Algiers, had experienced little or no violence.
On the first day of Ramadan, at about 6:15 pm, assailants, armed with axes and knives, swept down on four farming villages in the Ammi Moussa area, and killed hundreds of people as they sat down to break their fast: The attackers killed families indiscriminately, including men, women, children and babies, in their homes; beheaded some; and butchered others.
Survivors were quoted in the Algerian press as identifying the leader of the assailants as Aoued Abdallah, called "Cheikh Noureddine", a western Algeria head of the Armed Islamic Group (GIA).
The Algerian government told the UN Commission on Human Rights,(E/CN.4/2000/3/Add.1) Archived 2001-07-21 at the Wayback Machine "On 31 December 1997, a judicial inquiry was opened and on 8 February 1998 the examining magistrate ordered that further investigations be carried out.