ALGIERS: Algeria on Wednesday buried army chief Ahmed Gaid Salah, who had been the country´s de facto strongman in recent months and guardian of the ruling system challenged by a massive protest movement. After a funeral worthy of a head of state, the veteran general was interred in Martyrs´ Square in Al-Alia cemetery, where former presidents and other major Algerian figures are laid to rest. The wooden coffin containing the body of Gaid Salah, who died of a heart attack on Monday aged 79, was displayed for four hours in the People´s Palace in the centre of the capital Algiers before being carried in a procession to his final resting place. Thousands gathered at the gates of the palace, along the procession´s route and at the cemetery to pay their respects to the man who had been army chief for a record 15 years — but also a face of the political system the months-old protest movement has been railing against. Gaid Salah became the country´s de facto leader behind the scenes after longtime president Abdelaziz Bouteflika was forced to step down in the face of huge street protests in April. But the crowds saluting the departure of the funeral procession paid tribute to Gaid Salah, with calls of “Allahu akbar” (God is Greatest) and ululations. The convoy was led by a officers in ceremonial uniforms on the back of a lorry, flanked by police motorcycle outriders. The coffin was transported on a gun carriage pulled by an armoured personnel carrier along the roughly 10-kilometre (6-mile) route to the cemetery, where Gaid Salah was buried in the afternoon.
