Top 2 Al-Qaida leader killed in Algeria

Algerian security forces killed the deputy leader of the Maghreb offshoot of Al-Qaeda in a clash in the east of the country, newspapers reported Wednesday. Zobeir Harkat, better known as Sofiane Fassila, was killed Sunday in fighting in the troubled Kabylie region, said the reports, which were not immediately confirmed by authorities.

Harkat, 32, was considered the main bomb-maker for Al-Qaeda in Maghreb, the former Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) which changed its name last year and pledged allegiance to Osama bin Laden.

The media reports said he was believed to have been behind several suicide bomb attacks since April, including one while President Abdelaziz Bouteflika was visiting the eastern town of Batna early in September.

Newspapers said two other armed Islamists were killed in the clash with Harkat on a road from Boghni to Tizi Ouzou, about 100 kilometres (60 miles) east of Algiers.

Hassan Hattab, the founder of the GSPC from which the extremist group emerged, surrendered to security forces on September 22 after a reported deal to benefit from Bouteflika's policy of national reconcilation. Hattab and Fassila were close for some time, the media said.

AFP