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Join on Telegram ALGIERS, Jan 1, 2013 (AFP)
Algerian troops killed six armed Islamists overnight, seizing assault rifles and ammunition in the Boumerdes region east of the capital, the APS news agency quoted a security source as saying on Tuesday.
The incident occurred during an army operation in Bouzegza, 50 kilometres (30 miles) from Algiers.
Members of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb are active in Boumerdes and the neighbouring province of 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.
