Army foils al-Qaeda attack
2007-07-15 17:59
Algiers - Reports say the Algerian army has halted an
attack by al-Qaeda militants and killed four in the troubled
north-eastern Kabylie region.
About 50 members of the al-Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic
Maghreb attacked two police stations in Yaourene village in Tizi
Ouzou province, about 100km east of Algiers.
The reports said the well-armed militants surrounded the police stations and clashed with security forces before fleeing after the intervention of helicopters.
Before the attack, the group planted five bombs on a road
leading to the stations targeting any reinforcements by
government forces. Two of them exploded without causing
casualties.
The attack came three days after a suicide bomber killed
eight government soldiers inside an army barracks in the
neighbouring province of Bouira in an attack claimed by al-
Qaeda.