Judiciary extends Balhah's detention, two Algerian soldiers killed

Two Algerian soldiers were killed and other four members of the municipal guards were killed in an attack on Saturday at a military vehicle west of the capital Algiers.

The municipal guards are semi-military units formed for fighting terrorism.

The Algerian daily Liberty said Sunday that a mortar was detonated when an armored vehicle for the national police ran near the entrance of Tejlabin city, east of the capital on Saturday evening. This was also followed by a fire gunfire exchange that resulted in wounding four members of the municipal guards and a female teenager in her house.

On the other and, the second ranking man of the dissolved Islamic Salvation Front, Ali Balhah, was brought before an Algerian court, five days after his detention under on charges of encouraging terrorism.

The judge of the court decided to extend Balhah's detention, waiting for his trial over accusations against him on statements he made in support of the Iraqi resistance, statements which are punishable under the Algerian law by five to ten years imprisonment.

Five days earlier, Balhah told al-Jazeera satellite tv that the Iraqi resistance has the right to kill those who collaborate with the occupation forces, and that sending a diplomatic mission to Iraq is a perpetuation of occupation at a time when Algeria was seeking to end the crisis of its kidnapped diplomats in Iraq prior to a statement by al-Qaida organization in Iraq that claimed responsibility for killing the Iraqi diplomats.

News Agencies