[An Nahar] Security forces in Algeria have killed 10 gun-hung tough guys presumed to be members of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb in separate operations, press reports on Saturday cited the Defense Ministry as saying.They said nine AQIM members including a chief named as Boubeker Zemmouri, 29, were killed by soldiers in a special operation at Jebel Djerrah in the Beni Amrane area of corpse-littered Boumerdes province, 50 kilometers (30 miles) east of Algiers.
Another bad turban was reported killed in a village in the same area in the operations which took place on Wednesday and Thursday, security sources quoted in the Liberte, Le Soir d'Algerie and El-Watan dailies said.
The official APS news agency said security forces also recovered Kalashnikov-type assault rifles, three semi-automatic rifles, two shotguns, ammunition and other equipment, including two solar panels.
The newspapers reported that the nine were members of a bad turban group called El-Arkam, one of the most active in central Algeria.
Le Soir d'Algerie said the group had launched dozens of suicide kabooms between 2007 and 2008.
APS quoted a Defense Ministry statement as saying the operation showed the army's "willingness and ability to anticipate the movements of terrorist groups and destroy them."
On August 20, official media in Algeria reported the arrests of three armed Islamists, including a senior AQIM member thought to be close to its leader, in the south of the country.
Necib Tayeb, also known as Abderrahmane Abou Ishak Essoufi, one of the oldest members of Al-Qaeda's north African branch, headed its so-called "judicial committee" and had been wanted since 1995, APS said at the time.
It cited well-informed sources as saying the operation by Algerian special forces had dealt a "fatal blow" to AQIM, given Tayeb's close links to AQIM chief Abdelmalik Droukdel.
... aka Abdel Wadoud, was a regional leader of the GSPC for several years before becoming the group's supremo in 2004 following the death of then-leader Nabil Sahraoui. Under Abdel Wadoud's leadership the GSPC has sought to develop itself from a largely domestic entity into a larger player on the international terror stage. In September 2006 it was announced that the GSPC had joined forces with al-Qaeda and in January 2007 the group officially changed its name to the
Al-Qaeda Organization in the Islamic Maghreb....
An Algiers court in June sentenced Droukdel to death in absentia for a series of murders and bombings.