Algerian Army kills 4 militants

ALGIERS: Algerian soldiers killed four gunmen during anti-militant operations, the Defense Ministry said Friday, a day after raiding the suspected hideout of militants behind the beheading of a French hostage.
Three suspected militants were killed on Friday in the area of Bouria, 120 km east of Algiers, the ministry said in a statement.
Two Kalashnikovs and a semi-automatic rifle were seized, it added.
The fourth militant was killed in a separate raid on Thursday in the Tiaret region, 340 km southwest of Algiers.
The army also announced Thursday that it had destroyed a camp in the Djurdjura mountains, 150 km southeast of Algiers, believed to have been used by militants who beheaded French hiker Herve Gourdel last month.
Gourdel was kidnapped on Sept. 21 by Jund Al-Khilifa, or “Soldiers of the Caliphate,” which has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria.
The daily Al-Watan newspaper reported that the army had identified five individuals thought to be behind Gourdel’s execution, including the militant who conducted the beheading.