Algeria holds Libyans on way to join Qaeda: Agency

Algiers, May 13: Algerian security forces arrested three Libyan Islamic militants planning to join al Qaeda's north African wing, Algeria's official news agency APS said today.

Police also captured an Algerian Islamist who was preparing to accompany the three to strongholds of the Algeria-based al Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb, the agency said, citing security sources.

APS did not say when the Libyans were arrested. Their capture, in the capital Algiers, was made possible by information provided by a former member of the group who had surrendered to the authorities on May 1.

The Libyan militants, aged between 22 and 25, had been ''recruited in Libya by extremist networks with international ramifications'', APS said.

Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, previously known as the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, or GSPC, claimed responsibility for triple suicide bombings that killed 33 people in Algiers on April 11.

It said on Tuesday it would carry out more suicide bombings and urged Muslims to join its ranks as suicide bombers.

Security officials suspect the group is attracting growing numbers of radical Islamists in the region and providing them with military training.

In late December Algerian newspapers reported Algerian security forces had arrested two Tunisians ''belonging to an international terrorist network''.

Reuters>