ANP forces thwart terrorist plot in the South of Algeria

Twelve suspected members of a “terrorist cell” planning attacks in Algeria have been arrested in the south of the country, the national defense ministry announced Wednesday in a press release.

It said the arrests were carried out during the past two weeks in anti-terrorist Army operations in Ghardaia, Laghouat and In Amenas, all several hundred kilometres from the capital Algiers.

The cell had been “preparing to carry out terrorist acts in the country with the complicity of other terrorist groups operating on the other side of the country’s southern border,” it said in a statement, without specifying whether it was Mali or Niger.

The national defense ministry said there were “no human losses” during arrest operations.

The statement did not provide details on the nationalities of the arrested terrorists but said the terrorist cell had been totally dismantled during operations since the start of January.

Algeria has most of its oil and gas facilities based in its vast Sahara, and has tightened security along its southern borders since its major gas plant of In Amenas in Illizi province was attacked in January 2013 by a heavily-armed a terrorist group.

Some of those terrorists reportedly crossed over the frontier from southern Libya to carry out the horrendous attack that killed 39 foreign contractors at the plant.

All the criminal assailants were then neutralized by ANP forces, three of them were arrested and 29 others were shot dead in the ensuing assault aimed at rescuing hostages held inside the plant.