ALGIERS, Sept 28: The Algerian military announced on Sunday that 150 members of the Islamist militant group GSPC were killed in a battle against government troops, 300 kilometres east of Algiers.

According a military spokesman, the militants were surrounded for about three weeks in a mountainous region before government troops backed by helicopters and fighter jets attacked them.

The spokesman called the action the Algerian military’s greatest success in the country’s 20-year battle against Muslim militants. Considered the most active militant Musllim group in Algeria, the GSPC (the Group for Preaching and Combat) is held responsible for the kidnap of 32 European tourists between February and April.—dpa