| Algerian security forces have killed seven armed Islamic extremists in the eastern Kabylie region as they hunted the killers of 12 security officers, the official news agency APS reported Saturday. Four Islamic extremists were killed on Thursday and three others on Friday, both in the mountainous Bejaia region, some 260 kilometres (160 miles) east of the capital Algiers, the agency said, without naming its sources. Papers earlier Saturday had reported four dead in the Thursday assault in the area, where units of the radical Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) are known to be based. At least 12 members of the Algerian security forces were killed early this month in the region when suspected Islamist rebels attacked their convoy, residents said. |