Militant group crushed after two-hour gun battle

Security forces in Algeria have killed 13 Islamic militants as part of a military crackdown on rebels committed to a nine-year insurgency.

It has been reported the militants were killed in the Chlef region, 130 miles west of the capital Algiers.

It says two members of the security forces have also been injured in a three-hour gun battle between the two groups.

The army in the north African nation has been hunting militants who have refused a partial amnesty, offered by President Abdelaziz Bouteflika in a bid to secure peace.

The Islamic insurgency, which has claimed more than 100,000 lives, was triggered in 1992 when the army cancelled elections that a now-banned fundamentalist party was set to win.

Last month, Bouteflika, who was elected in 1999, threatened to fight militants "with an iron fist". The army has since been combing isolated mountains and forests, hunting for hardline militants.

A military operation to flush out insurgents in the heavily-forested Sidi Bel-Abbes region, some 280 miles west of Algiers, had claimed 35 lives among the rebels.

16 soldiers have also been killed.