Two policemen on motorcycles were killed earlier this week by suspected Islamic extremists in the southwestern suburbs of Algiers, an official source said.
The two officers were directing traffic when "they were targeted by the terrorists" who immediately fled the scene, the source told AFP on Tuesday.
"Security forces immediately launched an operation to search for the criminals," the source added.
Local residents, who witnessed the incident said the attackers managed to escape with the policemen's weapons.
Meanwhile, Algerian newspapers also reported Tuesday that four soldiers and a doctor were kidnapped by an armed group at a false roadblock in the Tizi Ouzou region, some 110 kilometers south of the capital earlier this week.
Extremists of the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) and the hard-line Armed Islamic Group (GIA) have intensified attacks ahead of parliamentary elections set for May 30.
Both groups oppose Algeria's secular government and have rejected a reconciliation initiative of Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, elected in 1999. (Albawaba.com)
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