Between 13 and 27 government soldiers were killed on Sunday in an ambush by a group of armed Islamic militants in the Chlef region, 200 kilometers west of the capital Algiers, Algerian newspapers reported on Tuesday.
The papers blamed a faction of the Armed Islamic Group (GIA) for the Sunday ambush of a military convoy heading for K'dadra to help villagers who had earlier been attacked by an unidentified armed group.
Separately, four members of a local defense group were killed in an ambush by armed assailants on Monday in the Ain Defla region, they said.
These attacks brings to over 50 the number of people killed in violence linked to Islamic extremists since the beginning of June, according to an AFP total complied from official and press reports.
Of that total over 30 were members of the security forces.
Since the start of the year, around 1,200 people have died in such attacks, according to the AFP count – ALGIERS (AFP)
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