ALGIERS, May 14: Al Qaeda-linked Algerian rebels facing stepped up assaults by the army set off a bomb killing three soldiers including an officer east of Algiers, newspapers reported on Monday.

Three soldiers were also wounded when the bomb exploded on Sunday near a military patrol hunting Islamist rebels in a mountainous part of Skikda province, 510 km east of Algiers, Liberte and El Khabar said.

The rebels were believed to belong to an armed rebel group that calls itself the Al Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb, the newspapers said.

The army has launched fresh offensives on rebel hideouts in several provinces since a triple suicide bombing killed 33 people in Algiers on April 11.

The Al Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb, previously known as the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, or GSPC, claimed responsibility for the bombings.

Algeria holds a parliamentary election on May 17. Some observers expect the rebels to try to disrupt polling.

Troops backed by helicopters on Sunday started bombing moutainous areas around Boumerdes town, 50 km east of Algiers, where Islamic militants are belived to be hiding, El Watan newspaper said.

It said the attack followed a skirmish the day before between the army and rebels in which seven army soldiers may have been killed. The daily said it could not as yet confirm the figure from “credible sources.”

—Reuters