Algeria's security forces kill 25 Muslim rebels

ALGIERS, Algeria (Reuters) -- Algeria's security forces have killed at least 25 armed radical Islamist rebels and surrounded 300 others in the western regions of Ain Defla and Chlef, the official APS news agency reported on Sunday.

Quoting three local newspapers, including the well-sourced Algiers-based El Watan, APS said in a brief statement: "During a vast combing operation in Algeria's western provinces, at least 25 terrorists were killed."

The operation was launched on Friday by the army security forces in Ain Defla and Chlef, 200 kilometers (125 miles) west of Algiers, in the framework of what APS called the "anti-terrorist struggle."

About 300 other "terrorists," believed to be members of al-Ahwal Katiba (Terror Squadron) were surrounded by army troops, APS added but gave no further details.

Official media usually use "terrorists" to describe Islamist rebels who are still bent on violence and have rejected President Abdelaziz Bouteflika's general amnesty.

The six-month amnesty, which expired on January 13, was the main plank of Bouteflika's peace plan aimed at ending eight years of political violence in which he says more than 100,000 people have been killed.

Algeria has been convulsed by violence since early 1992 when the authorities cancelled a general election in which the fundamentalist Islamist Salvation Front (FIS) had taken a commanding lead.

The FIS was banned by the army-backed government a few months later and its leaders sentenced to up to 12 years in jail.

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