Algiers: The Algerian army has identified one of seven armed Islamists killed east of the capital earlier this month as a key financier of the local affiliate of Al Qaida, the Al Watan newspaper reported on Saturday.
Region | Algeria
Al Qaida financier among seven killed in Algeria
Rezki took up arms against the government in 1994
- AFP
- Published: 17:02 January 5, 2013
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 Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) leader Abdul Malek Droukdel, the paper said.
He and his comrades were killed on Tuesday in a major operation that is still under way in the Boumerdes region, 50km east of Algiers. A total of nine suspected militants have been killed in the offensive.
Rezki’s reported killing follows those of AQIM spokesman Salah Gasmi southeast of Algiers last month and of its commander for the mountainous Kabylie region, Rabah Makhfi, alias Cheikh Nacer, in Bejaia province, east of the capital, in November.
AQIM has remained active in Boumerdes and neighbouring Kabylie despite frequent raids by the army to curtail its activities.
News Editor's choice
-
Faith healers charged with murder
US couple ignored court order to seek medical care for their children
-
Interview with Aminatta Forna
The author of ‘The Hired Man’ is amazed by how little it takes for people to turn evil, or just look away — and stay in denial after that
-
How women can have it all
Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg has enraged both sexes with her new book on women and work