Key al-Qaida militant killed in Algeria

ALGIERS - A key militant responsible for "external relations" between al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and the parent organization al-Qaida had been killed last Friday by Algeria's National People's Army (ANP), local APS news agency reported Sunday, citing security sources.

Bekai Boualem, alias "El Khaled Mig" and aged 45, was shot in an ambush on Friday by ANP forces near the village of Azrou in the town of Yakourene in Tizi Ouzou province, said the sources.

The identity of this terrorist was confirmed Sunday by his family who recovered his body at the morgue of the Hospital of Tizi Ouzou.

The terrorist had joined the Maquis terrorists at the beginning of the "Dark Decade" (1991-2001), and grew within terrorist groups that evolved in the central region of the country, particularly in Kabylia, in the forests of Akfadou and of Yakourene.

Headed by Abdelmalek Droukdel, AQIM emerged in early 2007 from Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, an Algerian armed Islamist movement. It operates in the Northwest of Africa, including Mali, Mauritania and Niger.

This movement has committed numerous attacks since then.

On April 11, 2007, three suicide bombing attacks shook Algiers, one targeting the government office in downtown the capital, the second targeting a police station in Bab Ezzouar on the eastern outskirts of Algiers, while the third hitting the headquarters of National Gendarmerie. As many as 20 people died and 222 others were injured, according to official toll.