A police officer and a suspected Islamic militant were killed in clashes in a mountainous region of eastern Algeria, a report said Sunday. Militants ambush a police station in the remote Skikda region, some 510 kilometers (317 miles) east of the capital, Algiers, on Saturday, Liberte newspaper reported. One officer was killed and four wounded in the attack on the town of Sidi Mansour, Liberte said.Another attack Saturday on an army unit conducting a routine operation near the town of Oued Zeggar caused no casualties, the report said. Algeria's security forces dispatched helicopters to find those responsible for the two attacks. One suspected militant was killed and another wounded in the sweep, Liberte said.
Algeria is trying to pull itself out of an Islamic insurgency that started 14 years ago and has killed an estimated 150,000 people: Islamists, civilians and military.