Islamic extremists killed 12 soldiers and injured six others in separate attacks near Skikda, 500 kilometers (310 miles) east of Algiers and 350 kilometers (220 miles) east of Algiers, the press said Thursday.
Ten soldiers were killed and three wounded on Tuesday at Bissi, near Skikda, when an armed gang ambushed their lorry and a light vehicle on a wooded mountain road.
The soldiers, returning from a mission to take supplies to a camp, were halted when a bomb exploded on the road. The attackers machine-gunned their vehicles and made off with weapons and uniforms, El Watan daily said.
On Wednesday morning, a similar ambush took place at Ammi-Moussa in the Relizane region, where two soldiers lost their lives and three were injured, the press said.
In that incident, two young men in a foot patrol were blown apart by a bomb blast before their comrades came under fire, Liberte daily reported.
In the past two weeks, more than 100 people have been killed on attacks blamed on two hardline movements, the Armed Islamic Group and the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat – ALGIERS (AFP)
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