Reports from Algeria say ten Islamist militants and eleven government soldiers have been killed in operations against the rebels east of the capital, Algiers.

One newspaper, Le Matin, said the soldiers were killed as they were clearing mines in preparation for an assault on a rebel hideout in the Dellys area.

It said the operation was still going on, but gave no details of its scope. The paper said the rebels belonged to a radical Islamic group, Al-Da'wa wa Al-Jihad, which had rejected an amnesty offered by President Abdelaziz Bouteflika. Ten suspected Islamist militants were reported killed over the past two days when army jets bombed their positions in the Mizrana forest, some one-hundred-kilometres east of Algiers.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service