Suspected Islamist militants attacked an oil pipeline in northern Algeria yesterday, killing two guards and wounding seven other people, a security source has said.
The Djebahia region, some 45 miles east of the capital, is a stronghold of al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) which earlier this month killed 37 foreigners at a gas plant in the south, and is where its leader Abdelmalek Droukdel is believed to be based, the source said.
Militant attacks are rare in the country's north due to a heavy security presence that pushed most AQIM activities south.
"In comparison to the In Amenas incident, this is a very minor event," the source said, referring to the gas plant attack.
Droukdel is believed to be somewhere in a triangle of three northern cities: Boumerdes, Bouira and Tizi Ouzou, about 1000 miles (1600km) from In Amenas, and has limited contact with other senior members of the group, the source said.
"The links are almost non-existent, and evidence of that is there are no Libyan weapons with AQIM's militants in the north," a security source who asked not to be named said.
The In Amenas attackers used arms smuggled across the desert border with Libya.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article