Al-Qaeda man among seven killed in Algeria

ALGIERS: The Algerian Army has identified one of seven armed radicals killed east of the capital earlier this month as a key financier of the local affiliate of Al-Qaeda, the El Watan newspaper reported yesterday.
Izza Rezki, also known as Abou Djaffar, took up arms against the government in 1994, early in Algeria's devastating civil war, and was a key aide of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) leader Abdelmalek Droukdel, the paper said.
He and his comrades were killed on Tuesday in a major operation that is still underway in the Boumerdes region, 50 km east of Algiers. A total of nine suspected militants have been killed in the offensive.