Algeria Forces Seek Freed Islamists

RABAT, Morocco — Security forces scouring the mountains of eastern Algeria killed five men and arrested 39 Saturday in a manhunt for Muslim gunmen and 900 fellow Islamists they freed from a fortress prison.

Algerian state radio, ending official silence on the breakout, said the forces were combing the rugged Aures region where Algerian guerrillas once held out against French forces after launching the war that led to independence in 1962.

The Islamists included 280 plucked from Death Row.

The official news agency APS, monitored in Paris, said “a large number of armed groups” attacked Tazoult prison near Batna overnight Thursday and exchanged heavy fire with prison staff.

Earlier, APS, quoting Liberte daily newspaper, spoke of “a spectacular operation by terrorist groups” against the prison near Batna, 217 miles southeast of Algiers.

It said “900 Islamic prisoners, of whom 280 had been condemned to death, escaped and four (prison) guards were killed.”

In its latest report, the agency, quoting a Justice Ministry statement, said 39 assailants and escapees had been arrested and five shot dead by security forces.