ALGIERS — Algeria's Defense Ministry says six armed militants were killed in weekend operations in the center and far east of the country. The ministry says an army unit ambushed and killed two militants in the mountainous Kabylie region in the center of the country early Sunday. In the late afternoon, another unit carrying out search operations in the eastern Khenchela region killed four other militants. Algeria fought a brutal civil war against militants in the 1990s that resulted in some 200,000 dead but over the past decade, the radicals have been largely eliminated. Sporadic operations against the extremists, who have pledged allegiance to Al-Qaeda, continue in Algeria's mountains and forests. – AP
