Algerian forces kill Islamist militants

Algerian security forces have killed six al-Qaeda-linked Islamist militants in Kabylie, including three in the region’s main town of Tizi Ouzou, newspapers reported Wednesday. “One terrorist had walked into a chemist to buy medicine after stepping out of a car holding a prescription. When he walked back out, he was sprayed with bullets,” a witness told the El Watan paper. The unidentified Islamist suspect’s killing on Tuesday sparked a gunfight in Tizi Ouzou that also left two of his accomplices dead, the paper said, quoting security sources. Security forces used a helicopter during another raid east of Tizi Ouzou, in the Yakouren area, which saw three Islamist militants gunned down, Le Temps newspaper reported. A cell affiliated to al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), which was born out of hardline groups that emerged during Algeria’s 1990s civil conflict, had been spotted in the region over recent days. Following the brutal decade-long war that left up to 200,000 people dead, president Abdelaziz Bouteflika started a process of national reconciliation and offered amnesty to all Islamists. Former members of the Armed Islamic Group and its offshoots who have since proclaimed their allegiance to al-Qaeda have largely been flushed out, but incidents remain frequent in Kabylie, east of Algiers. Algeria’s police chief, General Abdelghani Hamel, told the El Khabar daily on Tuesday that “the terrorist threat remains in all regions of Algeria.”