Scores İnjured İn S. Algeria Anti-Gas Drilling Protests

Scores were injured Sunday in clashes between security forces and protesters opposing excavation operations for shale gas in southern Algeria, local activists have said.



"Twenty people were injured when clashes erupted this afternoon in Tamanrasset city between police and protesters who reject the shale gas exploitation," Taqi Abdel-Rahman, a member of a local grassroots group which rallies against shale gas excavations in the Tamanrasset, told The Anadolu Agency.



Abdel-Rahman said that protesters had blocked a highway linking Algeria to next-door Niger.



For his part, Lamani Khaled, a member of Tamanrasset's local council, told AA that security forces "intervened to reopen the vital highway."



Local activists in the southern Ain Salah city have also said that violent clashes erupted between police forces and protesters.



"At least 40 protesters and 19 security personnel were slightly injured in the clashes which lasted for eight hours," activist Othman Taher told AA.



Protesters in several parts of southern Algeria have held near-daily protests since last December to pressure authorities to halt shale gas drilling in the area.



Estimated at 19.8 billion cubic meters, Algeria is the world's third largest holder of shale gas reserves, preceded by China and Argentina, according to a recent U.S. government report.



www.aa.com.tr/en - Alger