ALGIERS, Algeria - Five security officials and a civilian were killed in a militant ambush of a town in eastern Algeria, media reports said Wednesday.
A report in Liberte daily said a group of militants on Monday swarmed a neighborhood in the town of Henchir El-Hoshas - some 373 miles east of the capital, Algiers - entering one of the houses and slitting the throat of a 50-year-old occupant.
Security forces arriving on the scene were caught in a booby trap, and five died as homemade bombs and mines set by the militants detonated as they entered the neighborhood, the report said.
The militants fled into the surrounding forest. Security forces were conducting a search, according to Liberte.
Algeria has been working to quell sporadic violence linked to an insurgency that broke out in 1992 after the army canceled legislative elections that an Islamic party was set to win. As many as 200,000 people have died in the resulting violence.
While large-scale violence died down in the 1990s, scattered attacks by have mounted in recent months.
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