Insurgent ambush kills 24 Algerian police: report

By Christian Lowe and Lamine Chikhi
ALGIERS (Reuters) - Insurgents killed 24 Algerian paramilitary police in an ambush on their convoy late on Wednesday, a local newspaper reported on Thursday.
There was no official comment on the report but if confirmed it would be the deadliest single attack in months in Algeria, where the government is fighting an Islamist insurgency allied to the al Qaeda network.
It took place at about 8 p.m. on a stretch of highway between the settlements of El Meher and El Mansourah, about 180 km (110 miles) east of the capital, the Echorouk newspaper cited security sources and local people as saying.
It said the attackers first activated two improvised explosive devices and then opened fire on the convoy. The insurgents left, taking with them arms, weapons and six police off-road vehicles, said the newspaper.
Two Algerian security sources, who did not want to be identified, told Reuters that there had been an ambush and that more than 20 paramilitary police had been killed.
Algeria, a major oil and gas producer across the Mediterranean from Europe, has been struggling for nearly two decades to get to grips with Islamist insurgents who now operate under the banner of al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).
The number of attacks has been in overall decline but there has been an upsurge in violence over the past few weeks.
Insurgents killed five paramilitary gendarmes late in May and a week later shot dead nine soldiers. At the start of this month AQIM killed a British man, Edwin Dyer. The group had been holding him hostage in neighboring Mali.
The newspaper report said Wednesday's ambush had been carried out on the N5 highway, a major route linking the capital, Algiers, to cities in the east of Algeria.
It said the paramilitary police who came under attack had been assigned to guard a group of Chinese construction workers building a new east-west road link across Algeria. It did not say if any of the workers had been hurt in the attack.
(Reporting by Lamine Chikhi; writing by Christian Lowe)

Source: Reuters