Algeria rebels kill seven soldiers - report

ALGIERS, Nov 26 (Reuters) Algerian rebels have killed seven soldiers in the latest attack on government forces by militants seeking to set up a purist Islamic state, a newspaper said today.

The independent daily El Khabar said the troops clashed with militants belonging to the al Qaeda-aligned group, the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), in Batna province, 435 km (270 miles) east of the capital Algiers yesterday.

The newspaper said a large-scale military offensive against rebels was going on in the area, where two soldiers were killed three days ago.

It was the worst attack since November 11 when seven soldiers died during clashes with rebels in Bouira province, 120 km (75 miles) east of Algiers.

Authorities were not immediately available for comment.

Algeria plunged into violence in 1992 when Islamists staged a rebellion after the then military-backed authorities, fearing an Iranian-style revolution, scrapped a parliamentary election that Islamist radicals were set to win.

Up to 200,000 people are estimated to have been killed in the fighting. The violence has declined sharply in recent years, and the government has freed more than 2,000 former Islamist guerrillas under a six-month amnesty plan that expired on August 31 this year.

Reuters SSC GC1658