Five dead after the explosion of a homemade bomb on a road in Algeria

Agents of the Algerian security forces, last December in Algiers.GEtty

Five people have died and three have been injured this Thursday by the explosion of a homemade bomb in the Algerian province of Tébessa, located 40 kilometers from the border between Algeria and Tunisia.

The attack, which took place on a northeast highway and whose responsibility no group has claimed, was the attack with the most civilian victims in several years, according to the agency France Presse.

The Algerian Ministry of Defense has reported in a statement that the homemade bomb has exploded when the vehicle in which eight people were traveling in Oued Khenig Roum, near the municipality of Tlidjene.

Lieutenant General Said Chengriha, Chief of the Algerian Army General Staff, has expressed his condolences for the death of these people, while wishing a "speedy recovery" to the three wounded in the attack.

On the other hand, the Defense portfolio has also reported that, in an ambush carried out in the city of Jenchela “as part of the fight against terrorism”, the Army has killed a “dangerous terrorist” and seized an RPK-type submachine gun, three magazines full of ammunition, a radio broadcasting station, and two mobile phones.

The operation, still underway, is part of the objective of freeing Algeria "from the scourge of terrorism and establishing security and tranquility throughout the national territory," according to the text released by the Ministry of Defense.

Violence in the North African country has dropped drastically in recent decades - after an armed conflict with Islamists in the 1990s left some 200,000 dead - yet groups related to Al Qaeda or ISIS continue to operate. in some remote areas.