According to the Algerian Defense Ministry, the soldier was killed on Wednesday, May 10 during a clash with armed Islamists.
The attack took place on Wednesday in an area more than 200 km southwest of Algiers, according to the Algerian Ministry of Defense. The officer killed by the jihadists, a captain, was taking part in a “search and search” operation carried out by an army unit in a wooded area near Tissemsilt, the ministry said in a statement.
This operation made it possible to encircle the “terrorist group” and to capture the four members, including an armed Islamist who took to the maquis in 2003, added this source
President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, who is also defense minister, sent a message of condolence to members of the army and the victim’s family, according to national television.
Sporadic operations
The Algerian army regularly announces that it has arrested or killed “terrorists”, a term used by the authorities to designate armed Islamists who have remained active since the civil war (1991-2002). According to an official report, this “dark decade” killed some 200,000 people.
Despite the 2005 Charter for Peace and National Reconciliation, which is supposed to turn the page on the violence, armed groups continue to carry out sporadic operations.
In early January, the Ministry of Defense indicated that 39 “terrorists” had been “put out of harm’s way” during operations carried out by the army during the year 2022.
