Algerian authorities say police have arrested the leader of a militant group linked to a spate of Algerian village massacres over the past decade.
An Interior Ministry statement released Monday offered few details of the arrest of Nourredine Boudiafi, leader of the Armed Islamic Group. It said he was captured during a security operation that began in early November near Algiers.
The arrest comes six months after the government announced the killing of the leader of another Algerian militant organization, the Salafist Group for Teaching and Combat.
Islamic militants launched a rebellion in 1992, after authorities canceled a second round of elections that Islamists were poised to win.
The cancellation plunged the country into civil war. Neither the Salafist Group nor the Armed Islamic Group has accepted terms of a government amnesty.
Some information for this report provided by Reuters, AP, AFP.