Foiled Bomb Plans In Algeria Leads To Arrest of Three

In the earlier hours of Wednesday, a bomb primed to explode in Algeria’s capital was defused; further leading to the arrest of three members of a “terrorist group”, as reported by the country’s ministry of defense.

“Security services of the national defense ministry were successful… in dismantling a network comprised of three elements supporting a terrorist group active in the Tipaza heights” near Algiers, the ministry said in a statement.

After investigations, it was established that one of these elements… had dispatched a homemade bomb” to Eucalyptus, an area in the suburbs of the capital, the ministry added.
The explosive device would have been used to perpetrate an attack in Algiers and was found before being deactivated on Tuesday by a special army unit, the statement added.
Six jihadists and three Algerian soldiers were killed in a clash in Tipaza in early January, according to authorities.

The defence ministry also on Wednesday announced the capture of a “terrorist” named Okbaoui Abdi, also known as Abdi Ould Barka, in southern Algeria near the border with Mali.
Algerian authorities use the term “terrorist” to describe armed Islamists who have been active in the country since the early 1990s.
Between 1992 and 2002, a civil war pitting the army against multiple Islamist and jihadist groups left an estimated 200,000 people dead.