ALGIERS (AFP)
Algerian security forces have killed four Islamist militants in two separate operations in the restive eastern region of Kabylie, security sources said on Tuesday.
The first incident took place late on Monday evening in Tadmait, 18 kilometres (10 miles) west of Tizi Ouzou, the main city in the region, where security forces intercepted a vehicle heading towards Algiers, the official APS news agency reported.
Two Islamists were killed in the gun battle that followed, while a third managed to escape, it added. Other reports said the survivor was captured and that two members of the security forces were wounded.
On Tuesday afternoon, police ambushed and killed another two armed Islamists in Ain El Hamam, 45 kilometres southeast of Tizi Ouzou.
Independent daily El Watan, which gave the same toll, said a policeman was wounded, but not critically.
In both cases, a number of Kalashnikov assault rifles were recovered.
On Friday, a militant suspected of liaising between Al-Qaeda and its north African branch Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb was killed by Algerian soldiers in an ambush 50 kilometres outside Tizi Ouzou.
AQIM, which stems from a group started in the late 1990s by radical Algerian Islamists, formally subscribed to Al-Qaeda’s ideology in 2007. After a string of high-profile attacks, the army managed to severely curtail its operations.
It has since been boosted by the turmoil in neighbouring Mali that followed a coup there in March, with hardline Islamists occupying the country’s vast northern region.
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