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Algerian troops kill 5 militants

12 October 2014 03:24 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Algerian Defense Ministry said five extremist militants were killed on Saturday in the province of Bouira, APA reports quoting the official APS news agency.

"As part of the fight against terrorism, and after the wide scale search and dragging operation conducted in 1st military region of Bouira, the National People's Army eliminated five terrorists around Montt El Mokrani Maala, in the upper woods of the locality of Lakhdaria," APS quoted a statement from defense ministry as saying.

A large quantity of ammunition in addition to two Kalashnikov automatic rifles and an automatic pistol were confiscated during this ongoing operation, the statement added.

This operation brings the number of the killed militants to eight within the past 24 hours. Earlier on Friday, the army forces killed three armed militants in the same area of Bouira.

On Thursday, the Defense Ministry said it raided a camp of the Islamic State (IS)-linked group who killed a Frenchman last month in the Djurdjura mountain between the provinces of Tizi Ouzou and Bouira. The army troops has launched a massive search and combing operation around the camp in the Djurdjura.

The Defense Ministry said the search operations are still underway, reiterating its determination and commitment to fight those "criminals" until their complete eradication.

Herve Gourdil, a 55-year-old French tourist kidnapped on Sept. 21 in northern Algeria, was executed on Sept. 24 by an IS-linked group. Before the execution, the armed group, which described itself as the Caliphate soldiers, urged French President Francois Hollande to halt the military operation against the IS in Iraq to save the life of Gourdil.

Algeria's government said a few militants affiliated to al- Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and the recently established IS-linked group of Caliphate soldiers are still taking refuge in the woods of central provinces of Boumerdes, Tizi Ouzou and Bouira.