ALGIERS, Jan 4: Algeria's government has announced that the killing of the head of the radical insurgent Armed Islamic Group (GIA) has led to the "almost total collapse" of the country's deadliest extremist force fighting secular authorities.

The killing of Rachid Abou Tourab by close aides in July was only announced by the interior ministry on Monday which added in a statement that action by the security forces had reduced the GIA to "about 30 terrorists split into two groups ... (which) security forces continue to hunt down."

The GIA is held responsible for the massacres of civilians in the name of what its leaders saw as a war to enforce compliance with strict Sharia Muslim law in a secular state. One group is in the Thala Acha mountains, near the garrison town of Blida, 50km from Algiers, and the other at Kouacem, 300km from the capital, officials said. -AFP