ANP troops eliminate ringleader of “Jund Al-Khilafa” terrorist group near Boumerdès

A statement from the Ministry of national Defense confirmed on Tuesday that ANP troops killed the head of the extremist “Jund al-Khilafa” group that decapitated a Frenchman in September.

The body of terrorist chieftain Abdelmalek Gouri, alias “Khaled Abou Slimane”, who claimed responsibility for the beheading of Frenchman Herve Gourdel, was identified at the end of an anti-terrorist operation in the town of  Isser “that allowed us to eliminate three terrorists,” the defense ministry said in a statement.

The Algerian army killed two other members of “Jund al-Khilafa” terrorist group in the same operation in the small town in the Kabylia region.

ANP Soldiers also seized a large quantity of guns, ammunition and explosives during the operation.

The terrorist group calling itself “Jund al-Khilafa” and pledging allegiance to the so-called “Islamic State in Syria and Iraq” kidnapped French hiker Herve Gourdel in the Djurdjura mountains in September.

Mr Gourdel was savagely beheaded on video a few days later when demands for France to end air strikes were not met.

The Algerian army carried out a massive search operation to find the group behind the kidnapping and said two other members of the terrorist group had been killed in past months.

Gouri, wanted since 1995, and dubbed as a “dangerous criminal” was killed in a late-night operation in the town of Isser, in Boumerdes province, 60 km east of Algiers, well-informed sources told Echorouk.

A local security source said the military had been tracking him for a while and nearly caught him a month before.

After the hideous beheading of Mr Gourdel, the “Jund al-Khilafah” terrorist group issued videos showing masked men carrying weapons in a forest and pledging allegiance to Islamic State IS terror group.

Abdelmalek Gouri, a former “AQIM” terrorist commander, split from it last September and pledged allegiance to IS, promising new terrorist operations.