Algerian radio reports killings

Thirty-four people have been killed in the Algerian provinces of Laghouat, Blida and Djelfa, at least 25 of them overnight, Algerian radio reported on Wednesday.

It said "a terrorist group" attacked the village of Feroukha Souma near Blida on Tuesday night and killed 13 people.

Security forces pursued the attackers and killed four of them.

A "terrorist group" also attacked the village of Benaouda in Laghouat Province, where they killed 12 people and injured another. Security forces intervened to kill three "terrorists."

"Terrorists" also killed nine people in Mseka on the road to Charef in Djelfa Province, the radio said, without specifying a date.

Security forces killed 10 "terrorists" in an operation that began in Sidi Said, Medea Province on Tuesday. A member of the municipal guard was injured during the operation.

A security forces' statement said a search for the "terrorist" , Cheikh Ahmed, known as "the butcher", ended on Tuesday when he was killed in Medea Province. The radio did not say who killed him.

BBC Monitoring (http://www.monitor.bbc.co.uk), based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.