Algerian officials say security forces have killed nine Islamist militants in several days of fighting in northern Algeria.
They say Algerian soldiers also seized weapons and ammunition in the fighting that began Sunday in Bouria province in the Kabylie region. Officials say a militant commander named Bouchih was among those killed.
Officials say the military operation was in a mountainous area where a suicide truck bomber killed 10 soldiers last month. Al-Qaida's North African branch claimed responsibility for that attack.
The al-Qaida Organization in the Islamic Maghreb, formerly known as the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, also carried out two car bombings in the Algerian capital, Algiers, in April that killed 33 people.
Militants have been fighting to establish an Islamic state in Algeria since 1992.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP and Reuters.
