RELATED VIDEO CNN's Peter Arnett reports Windows Media 28K 56K

TLEMCEM, Algeria (CNN) -- Far from the capital, Algiers, and removed from the bloodshed of an Islamic insurrection that has stained the haunting beauty of much of the nation, Tlemcem has remained a loyal outpost of Algeria's secular government.

But recently, the city's comfortable isolation was shattered when a bomb ushered in the horror of civil war.

Correspondent Peter Arnett has the story.