Algeria forces kill 13 Islamic rebels-paper

ALGIERS, May 15 (Reuters) Algerian troops, stepping up assaults on al Qaeda's north African wing after suicide bombings last month, killed 13 Islamist fighters east of Algiers, a newspaper reported today.

Special forces backed by helicopters killed 11 militants believed to belong to the al Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb in an offensive yesterday on rebel hideouts in Tebessa province 634 km east of Algiers, Liberte newspaper said.

In a separate operation, the army killed two Islamist rebels in Boumerdes, 50 km east of Algiers, the newspaper reported.

The attack in Tebessa near the border with Tunisia was launched after security forces received word that 20 rebels were preparing to transport big quantities of arms to Boumerdes and the neighbouring province of Tizi Ouzou, where troops have killed 13 islamist fighters in the past few days.

The oil- and gas-exporting country has been on high alert since a triple suicide bombing killed 33 people in Algiers on April 11.

Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, previously known as the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, or GSPC, claimed responsibility for the bombings. The group said last week it would carry out more suicide bombings.

It has also called on Algerians to boycott Thursday's parliamentary polls, which it condemned as a ''farce'', according to an audio tape aired by Al Jazeera television on Monday.

The bombings raised fears that the north African nation might return to the intense political violence of the 1990s when tens of thousands of Islamist guerrillas fought the army to try to set up Islamic rule.

Conflict broke out in Algeria in 1992 after military-backed authorities scrapped parliamentary elections that an Islamist party was set to win. Up to 200,000 people have been killed in the bloodshed.

Reuters SLD DB1819