Africa News
Algerian military kill al-Qaeda leader
Oct 19, 2009, 13:30 GMT
Algiers/Paris - Algerian soldiers have killed one of the most powerful leaders of the terrorist group al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQMI), security officials said Monday in the capital Algiers.
Mourad Louzai, also known as Nouh Abu Qatada al-Salafi, died during a military raid near the city of El Bayadh, about 600 kilometres south-west of Algiers.
Louzai joined the Islamic rebellion against the central government in 1994 and had assumed a top position in the group, which allied itself with Osama bin Laden's terrorist network in January 2007.
Louzai reportedly participated in an AQMI attack in June near the eastern city of Tizi Ouzou in which 20 Algerian gendarmes were killed.
Meanwhile, some 500 soldiers and veterans who were wounded in the conflict with the AQMI demonstrated Sunday in front of the Algerian Defence Ministry demanding reparation payments, the daily El Watan reported Monday.
The demonstrating soldiers are also demanding rises in their handicap benefits and an increase in their pensions.
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