Algeria kills jihadist chief behind Frenchman's murder

The Algerian army said on Tuesday that it has killed the head of the jihadist Jund al-Khilafa group that decapitated a Frenchman in September.

   The body of Abdelmalek Gouri, who claimed responsibility for the beheading of Frenchman Herve Gourdel, was identified after an operation in the town of Isser "that allowed us to eliminate three terrorists," the army said.

   The confirmation of Gouri's death came after the Nahar private television network said soldiers had killed him and two other militants late on Monday in Isser, about 60 kilometres (37 miles) east of Algiers.

   Jund al-Khilafa, or "Soldiers of the Caliphate", beheaded Gourdel on September 24 in a gruesome video posted online after France rejected their demand to halt air strikes in Iraq.

   On Saturday, the army said it killed three other Islamist gunmen in a mountainous area near Sidi Daoud, and that one of them was a "dangerous criminal" wanted since 1995.

   Soldiers seized a large quantity of guns, ammunition and explosives during the operation.

   On December 11, Algerian Justice Minister Tayeb Louh announced that soldiers had killed two members of Jund al-Khilafa implicated in the murder of Gourdel.

   Gourdel, a 55-year-old mountain guide, was kidnapped in September while hiking in a national park that was once a draw for tourists but became a sanctuary for Islamists.

   He was later beheaded by Jund al-Khilafa, which was formed at the end of August after splintering from Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and pledging allegiance to IS.

   His killing followed calls by IS for Muslims to kill Westerners whose nations have joined a campaign to battle the jihadist group in Iraq and Syria.

   Violence involving armed Islamists has fallen considerably since the civil war of the 1990s, but groups linked to AQIM continue to launch attacks in the northeast, mostly on security forces. (AFP)