ALGIERS, Algeria (AP) — An Algerian military police official says an army patrol has ambushed suspected militants from al-Qaida’s north Africa wing, killing 10.
Regional police official Aissa Khoudmi says the army intercepted communications to surprise the militants near Slim in the M’Sila region about 220 miles (350 kilometers) south of Algiers.
Khoudmi told The Associated Press on Sunday the operation the previous night involved troops backed by police as the militants were riding southward in a truck.
Al-Qaida in Islamic North Africa rose from the remains of a Salafist militant group in the 1990s, when a near-civil war between government forces and Islamists killed up to 200,000 people. The group stepped up attacks after joining Osama bin Laden’s network in 2006.
