An extremist has surrendered to the military in the Skikda region of northeastern Algeria as two more militants were taken into custody in an area on the border with Libya, the Algerian defense ministry has said.
According to a ministry statement, Bilal Filali, aka Abou Ayman Thabet, surrendered to the army along with his wife and five children in Skikda, some 550 kilometers east of Algiers.
The wives and three children of two other militants, who had been killed in a military operation, also gave themselves up, said the statement.
The arrest of Filali came as part of anti-terrorism efforts, it said, without mentioning its circumstances or the name of the terrorist group he belonged to.
The ministry only said that the terrorist “became a member of criminal groups in 1998,” and that he was carrying a Kalashnikov assault rifle and ammunition at the time of his arrest.
It published six photographs along with the news of Filali’s arrest. Some of the photos show three women and children inside a room believed to be part of a military barracks.
Other pictures show the woman with children in a mountainous area, and a hideout in the woods.
The children have most likely been born in terrorist hideouts. The media refers to them as the “children of the mountain,” whose numbers amount to 600, according to the interior ministry.
The Skikda region was a former stronghold of armed groups during the 1990s and is known for its mountainous and wooded terrain.
In related news, the defense ministry said that two terrorists surrendered to the army in the country’s southeast, near the Libyan border.
The army seized their Kalashnikov rifles and ammunition, it said, without giving further details.
