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Three others were wounded in the Tébessa region, the Algerian defense ministry said in a statement.
Five civilians were killed and three injured in a roadside bomb attack in eastern Algeria, the defense ministry said, the deadliest attack targeting civilians in recent years.
The bomb exploded as a car passed the Tébessa region on Thursday, the ministry said in a statement.
“Five citizens died and three others were injured when a homemade bomb exploded while their car was driving in Oueid Khenig-Roum, near the district of Telidjane in the prefecture of Tebessa,” he said without giving any details. details.
The same statement added that a fighter from an armed group was killed by soldiers in the neighboring Khenchela region, but it was not immediately clear whether the two incidents were linked.
“Following an ambush in Oued Boudekhane … in Khenchela prefecture, a detachment of the National Popular Armed Forces shot dead … a dangerous terrorist,” the statement said.
Armed groups
A machine gun, ammunition, cell phones and a radio transmitter were recovered during the operation, the defense ministry said.
Algerian authorities use the term “terrorist” to describe armed groups active in the country since the early 1990s.
Between 1992 and 2002, a civil war between the army and several armed groups left around 200,000 dead.
A 2005 charter for peace and national reconciliation was supposed to have turned the page on conflict, but groups continue to carry out sporadic operations.
Earlier this month, the ministry said six fighters and three Algerian soldiers were killed in two days in separate clashes in the west of the country.
In December, a clash in the Jijel region east of Algiers killed a staff sergeant and three suspected fighters. The army later announced that it had captured a “dangerous terrorist”.
Over the past year, 21 fighters have been killed, nine have been captured and seven surrendered in Algerian army operations, the military said in a tally released earlier this month.
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