Special to WorldTribune.com

CAIRO — Algeria has reported an operation against Al Qaida.

Security sources said Algerian special operations forces stormed
suspected strongholds of Al Qaida Organization in the Islamic Maghreb. The sources said the attacks, which took place on June 23 in the southern provinces of
Adrar and Ilizi, killed six AQIM fighters.
“We believe the terrorists came from Mali,” a source said.

The sources said one of the dead in Ilizi was identified as a leading AQIM fighter. Sidi Ben Okhmu, also known as Abu Mohammed, was said to have been the leader of an AQIM offshoot called Tawhid W’al Jihad that operated
in Mali and southern Algeria. They said the 30-year-old Ben Okhmu, who entered Algeria from neighboring Libya in May, was responsible for logistics in the region. Three other fighters were also killed and a fifth was arrested.

Security forces were also said to have seized a large amount of weapons from Al Qaida’s mountain stronghold in the southern Sahara Desert. The sources said the fighters operated from bunkers filled with weapons believed transferred from Mali.

The Algerian daily Al Khabar said the army’s counter-insurgency commando
force was used in the attack. The newspaper said the army and Gendarmerie
captured a large amount of weapons, ammunition and fuel.

In Adrar, south of Algiers, security forces raided another suspected Al
Qaida stronghold. The sources said the target was the so-called Sons of the
Desert Movement, another AQIM offshoot with operations in neighboring Mali
and Mauritania.

The sources said two Islamist fighters were killed and weapons and
equipment were seized. They said the Adrar cell had been planning a suicide
bombing against government facilities in Algeria.

  Al Qaida Organization in the Islamic Maghreb, Algerian forces kill top Al Qaida operatives from Mali, Gendarmerie, Sidi Ben Okhmu, southern Sahara Desert