Algeria's most wanted Islamic extremist, held responsible for some of the worst atrocities the country has seen, has been killed during an army operation west of the capital, informed sources said yesterday.
Antar Zouabri, the leader of the Armed Islamic Group (GIA), the most radical of Algeria's fundamentalist rebel movements, was killed on Tuesday along with several of his lieutenants, said the source, who requested anonymity.
The GIA is held responsible by Algerian authorities for the deaths of thousands of civilians.
It has also claimed responsibility for a wave of bombings in Paris in 1995 in which eight died, and the 1994 hijacking of an Air France flight in Algiers.
A reward of $73,000 (£49,325) had been offered for Zouarbi's killing or capture.
There was no official confirmation yesterday of his death.
Reports in the Algerian press yesterday morning said security forces had besieged the rebel leader for several days in the village of Hattatba, around 40
km west of Algiers.
The operation was part of a security sweep in which around 100 fundamentalist guerrillas have been killed and another 300 have surrendered, the newspaper La
Tribune, said, quoting residents of the region.
Zouarbi's killing, if confirmed, would be a major coup for the security forces, who have been waging a bloody battle against fundamentalists for more than five years.
Earlier, the newspaper, Al Khabar, reported "some sources" as saying that a mass grave with about 100 bodies had been found. It was discovered by troops advancing across rough terrain in an operation against the GIA rebels in Attatba in western Tipaza province.
The GIA considers itself the standard bearer of the jihad (holy war) in
Algeria, which it promises to wage until the setting up of an Islamic state.
But for more than a year, the rebel army has been riven by infighting, and is also believed to have been deeply infiltrated by military intelligence services.
Zouarbi (26), took over as leader of the GIA in July 1996, after his predecessor, Djamel Zitouni, was killed in an ambush carried out by a breakaway nationalist Islamic faction.
Zouarbi's name is associated with some of the worst butchery Algeria has known.