ALGERIA: ARMY KILLS SIX MILITANTS, REPORT

Algiers, 12 Jan. (AKI) - Six members of the Salafite Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), a militant group which has pleaded allegiance to al-Qaeda, have been killed in a vast anti-terror operation of the Algerian army in the eastern area of Skikda, 400 kilometres east of the capital Algiers, military sources were quoted saying by local daily al-Khabar on Friday. The paper reported that the six could not be identified as they were hit by missiles in an air raid as they were hiding on mount Bourqash.

Algerian forces later reportedly found in the militants' hideout Kalashnikov machine guns, cell phones and the ID papers of other militants killed during previous police operations.

Two months ago, the army carried out a similar air raid in a mountainous area killing ten militants.

Algeria was wracked by a brutal civil war in the 1990s in which an estimated 200,000 people have died. The GSPC is the only militant group to have remained active in the country after it refused to abandon the armed struggle in exchange for an amnesty in August.