All that to evade taking a test? Unfortunately for the jihadis, “Despite this hard blow, the exam session will continue.” Actually, the stated purpose of the attack is simply that the teachers were being “untruthful to Islam.”
“Militants Kill Algerian Teachers, Police,” from the WSJ, June 3:
ALGIERS, Algeria — Al Qaeda-linked militants killed two teachers and eight police escorts as they brought copies of tests back from an examination center near the Algerian capital, a local official and media said Wednesday.
The militants triggered a roadside bomb as the teachers returned Tuesday evening from a high-school entry exam in the town of Timezrit, some 49 miles east of the capital, Algiers.
The teachers’ car was hit by the bomb, which also seriously injured the vehicle’s driver and the manager of Timezrit’s exam center, said Ali Hadjeres, the town’s deputy mayor. The militants then opened fire on the two police cars escorting them, Mr. Hadjeres said. “Despite this hard blow, the exam session will continue,” he said.
The attack was one of the first in recent months that appeared to deliberately target civilians. But Algerian teachers are civil servants, and militants in this north African country usually justify targeting government officials because they accuse the government of being untruthful to Islam…