Authorities have said that militants opened fire on unsuspecting national and local police officers in Algeria near the border with Mali Wednesday, killing 11 of them.

The Algerian daily newspaper Ennahar has reported that the ambush by an unidentified terrorist group occurred as the police convoy traveled through Tinzaouatine in southern Algeria.

Other police officers were wounded and a guide was abducted by the attackers, who fled into Mali, the newspaper further added. (With Inputs from Agencies)

The El Khabar newspaper has reported that Algeria's defense ministry plans to cut arms purchases from the United States because of lengthy delivery delays and concentrate on Russian weapons systems.

Russia Veomosti daily reported on Monday that Russia's state arms exporter Rosoboronexport has signed two contracts worth $1.2 billion to deliver 16 Sukhoi Su-30 multi-role fighters to Algeria and six to Uganda.

It has delivered 28 Su-30MKA jets to Algeria, customized to meet Algerian specifications, since 2006, says the Irkut Corp., part of Russia's United Aircraft Corp.

Cairo - Algeria has told Orascom Telecom that it owes 596.6 million dollars in back taxes and penalties, the company said in an overnight statement Wednesday, promising to fight the decision.

"The reassessment is based primarily on the unfounded and unacceptable allegation that (Orascom Telecom Algeria) did not keep proper accounts for the years 2005, 2006 and 2007," Orascom said, adding that its books were audited by local and international accountants.

Cairo - Naguib Sawiris, the chairman of Egypt's giant Orascom Telecom, on Tuesday said the "situation was escalating," after Algerian football fans attacked his company's compound there.

Thousands of fans burned down Orascom's compound in Algiers and stole or destroyed mobile phones and other equipment worth 5 million dollars, Sawiris told reporters in Cairo.

Algiers/Paris  - Seven security guards were killed early Thursday by a group of suspected Islamic extremists near the eastern city of Tizi Ouzou, local security sources said.

The victims were Algerians working for a company charged with guarding the waterworks site belonging to the Canadian public works company SNC Lavalin.

The men, all residents of the same village, were reportedly shot to death while traveling to work on a small lorry. (dpa)

Algiers  - Algeria has provided Mali with weapons, munitions and satellite navigation equipment to fight the terrorist group calling itself al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, local media reported Friday.

According to El-Khabar daily, a convoy of 20 lorries of material was provided by the Algerian military to combat the group. A similar delivery is planned for Niger.

Paris - Algeria began its new working week Thursday, with workers turning up on what until now had been a free day forming the weekend along with Friday.

The weekend will now comprise Friday and Saturday under the new system, which means Algeria will share four working days per week instead of just three with the economically important West.

Under the old system, in force for three decades, it had shared only Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday as working days with Western nations, causing huge economic losses.

Algeria/Paris - At least 18 suspected terrorists were killed during Algerian army operations in the eastern part of the country, Algerian media reported Sunday.

The dead were believed to belong to al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, the reports said.

About 6,000 soldiers have been engaged in operations in the area for the past week, reacting to an attack in which four security officials were wounded.

Army officials have reported finding multiple stockpiles of hidden weapons, which troops destroyed.(dpa)

Algiers - President Abdelaziz Bouteflika Saturday promoted the first woman in Algeria's military history to the rank of general.

Bouteflika named as general Aardjoun Fatma-Zohra, a division head in the central hospital of the Algerian Army.

Alongside her promotion, 16 men were named general, and another four were named to the higher rank of major general.(dpa)

Algiers/Paris - Algerian authorities reported Friday that 19 people were killed in an attack on Algerian gendarmes on the two days prior.

The official Algerian news agency APS reported officials sources as saying the dead included 18 of the gendarmes who were escorting a group of Chinese workers and one civilian.

Security sources had initially spoke of 24 dead.

Six gendarmes and two civilians were injured in the attack by suspected Islamist terrorists.

Algiers/Paris - Suspected Islamist terrorists have killed 24 Algerian gendarmes who were escorting a group of Chinese workers, security sources said Thursday.

The attack took place late Wednesday near the city of Bordj Bou Arreridj, about 130 kilometres south-east of the capital Algiers.

Witnesses told the Arab-language daily Echourouk that the attack began with a series of bomb explosions that were followed by volleys of automatic weapons fire.

Algiers - Eight members of an Algerian Army parachute unit were killed in a battle with a group of presumed Islamic terrorists, the online edition of the daily El Watan reported Wednesday.

Another eight soldiers were gravely wounded in the skirmish, which took place Tuesday near the city of Biskra, about 435 kilometres south of the capital Algiers.

According to the report, the soldiers were on their way to an anti-terrorist operation when bombs concealed on the roadway exploded and they came under heavy gunfire.

Algiers - Two Algerian soldiers were killed and two more were wounded in an exchange of gunfire with a group of presumed Islamist terrorists, the Algerian daily El Watan reported Tuesday.

The skirmish occurred early Monday near the town of Trachta, about 115 kilometres west of the capital Algiers, as units of the Algerian army surrounded a group of armed men in a secluded mountainous area.

Algerian security forces have carried out several sweeps in the region, which is believed to serve as a base for several terrorist groups. (dpa)

Algiers - Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika was elected to an unprecedented third term with 90.24 per cent of the vote, Interior Minister Nouredine Yazid Zerhouni announced Friday. The re-election of the 72-year-old Bouteflika was considered a foregone conclusion after the two main opposition parties decided to boycott the vote, alleging that it had been "rigged in advance."

The five candidates who stood against Bouteflika were marginal political figures little known by the general public.

Algiers  - Three guards working on a foreign construction project in Algeria have been killed by suspected Islamic terrorists, local media reported on Thursday.

The three brothers were traveling in their car near the eastern port city of Jijel when they were confronted by a group of armed men, who shot the victims before slitting their throats.

The incident occurred late Wednesday, on the eve of elections that are expected to return President Abdelaziz Bouteflika to office for an unprecedented third five-year term.

Paris - The press freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders Wednesday strongly criticized the Algerian government's decision to ban three French publications in the run-up to Thursday's election.

"This censorship is disgraceful," the group said in a statement about the repression of the current issues of the weeklies L'Express, Marianne and Le Journal du Dimanche.

The ban "constitutes a denial of press freedom and therefore a denial of democracy," the organization said.

Algiers - In the latest of a series of terrorist attacks, a high-ranking Algerian army officer was killed in a bomb attack in northern Algeria and f further soldier badly wounded, media reports said Saturday.

The attack took place on Friday ahead of an election rally appearance by President Abdelaziz Bouteflika in the region. The rally went ahead despite the attack.

The bombing came at the end of a week of bloodshed in which dozens of people were killed in attacks and clashes.

Algiers - Two soldiers and seven presumed Islamic terrorists have died in Algeria as the wave of violence continued in the run-up to April 9 general elections, local media reported on Wednesday.

The two soldiers were killed when a homemade bomb exploded under the lorry on which they were riding late Monday in the southern region city of M'ziraa, the daily Liberte reported.

Algiers - Violence in the run-up to the April 9 general elections continued in Algeria as six people were killed in the east of the country in two separate bomb attacks, local media reported on Tuesday.

Four soldiers were killed and one injured when two bombs exploded on Monday near the city of Tadmait, some 110 kilometres east of the capital Algiers.

The attack was attributed to Islamic terrorists and came less than 10 days after a suicide bombing that targeted local police headquarters in Tadmait.

Algiers - Presumed members of the terrorist group Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb have killed six people in two separate attacks in Algeria over the weekend, local media reported on Monday.

On a farm in the north-east of the country, the attackers first forced the farmer to watch as they slaughtered his flock of 300 sheep, the daily Liberte reported. Then they killed the farmer in front of his family before detonating a bomb that took the lives of three other family members and another person.