Algeria Summons Moroccan Charge D'affaires Over Alleged Border Shooting

The Algerian Foreign Ministry on Sunday summoned the Charge d'Affaires of the Embassy of the Kingdom of Morocco in Algiers just a day after Morocco accused Algerian troops of shooting a crowd of Moroccan civilians, the official APS news agency reported.
"In the absence of the Ambassador, Charge d'Affaires of the Embassy of the Kingdom of Morocco in Algiers was summoned on Sunday and was received by the Secretary General at the Foreign Ministry, Abdelhamid Senouci Bereksi," the ministry said in a statement, according to the APS report.
"Following the verbal escalation orchestrated by Moroccan officials against Algeria whose army forces were wrongly charged of firing at Moroccan civilians near the border between the two nations," the ministry said.
Bereksi told the Moroccan officials on Sunday that Algiers rejects Morocco's claims that Algerian troops targeted Moroccan civilians.
According to Bereksi, Algeria is "frustrated" by Morocco's " recurrent" accusations that run counter to the "bilateral relationships between the two countries and two brotherly peoples. "
The Algerian diplomat criticized Morocco saying, "more than once in the past (other) serious incidents involving the Moroccan security forces occurred in the border region and the Moroccan authorities (didn't) take any measures."
The controversy erupted on Saturday when the Moroccan government said Algerian forces fired on a group of Moroccans on the border, seriously injuring one citizen in the face.
Morocco summoned the Algerian ambassador in Rabat the same day to provide explanations over the incident.
The Moroccan version of events contrasts sharply with Algeria's account.
Earlier on Sunday, the spokesman for the Algerian Foreign Ministry, Abdelaziz Benali Cherif, was quoted by TSA news web as saying that "Moroccan civilians threw stones at the Algerian border guards, who responded with two warning shots in the air without targeting anybody, and I confirm there were no injuries." He added, "These kinds of incidents are common."
"The Moroccan authorities fabricated this incident," the spokesman for the Algerian Foreign Ministry said.
This isn't the first time the border region has been the site of politically contentious disputes.
Algiers closed the border with Morocco in 1994, after that Rabat started imposing visa entry on Algerian nationals, following a bomb attack in Marrakesh, which Moroccans attributed to Algerian services.
Furthermore, diplomatic coldness remains between Algiers and Rabat, mostly due to a sharp disagreement between the two nations over the issue of independence for the Western Sahara.
Algiers supports self-determination for the Sahrawi people, while Rabat insists that the Western Sahara is part of Morocco territories. (Cihan/Xinhua)