(AKI) - In a major anti-terror police operation, the Algerian army has surrounded an area on the outskirts of Tizi Ouzou, in Kabylia, 100 km from Algiers to hunt down al-Qaeda militants allegedly hiding in the area, the local al-Watan paper reported Thursday. The operation reportedly kicked off Wednesday morning and is being carried out with ground troops and helicopters. Security around public buildings was also boosted over fears that would-be suicide bombers are preparing to strike.Local terror experts fear militants are preparing to strike in Tizi Ouzou in retaliation for the death of Samir Saioud, a well known leader of the now defunct Salafite Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) which has changed its name to Al-Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb since pledging allegiance to the international terror network last year. Saioud was killed in clashes with the army on 27 April. The organisation claimed responsibility for the Algiers 11 April bombings, which killed 33 people and were the first in the capital's centre in over ten years. They are believed to be the country's first suicide attacks.
Algeria was wracked by a brutal civil war in the 1990s in which an estimated 200,000 people died. The GSPC, which pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda last September and changed its name in January, 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.