A fire ripped through an Algerian high security jail,...

A fire ripped through an Algerian high security jail, killing 18 prisoners and injuring seven others, Justice Minister Ahmed Ouyahia said.
He and other government officials said the fire broke out at a ward of Serkadji prison in Algiers on the night of April 30, killing or injuring all 25 inmates inside the room. The official Algerian news agency APS said the fire appeared to have been started by prisoners who had set their mattresses ablaze after seeing a 19-year-old inmate attempting to kill himself.
Most of the detainees in Serkadji are Islamists, many of them sentenced to death or serving life sentences for their roles in guerrilla activities.
Army officer Lembarek Boumaarafi, sentenced to death for killing president Mohamed Boudiaf in 1992, is also held in the century-old Serkadji. But officials said he is detained at another ward of the prison which is not affected by the fire.
Algeria has carried out no death sentences since 1993, when a moratorium on executions was established.