2007-06-10 15:07:58 -

ALGIERS, Algeria (AP) - Three soldiers were killed this week and another seven injured in a bomb attack in eastern Algeria attributed to al-Qaida's north Africa affiliate, news reports said Sunday.
The remotely triggered roadside bomb on Thursday hit an army patrol in the Beni-Ksila region, 230 kilometers (140 miles), east of the capital Algiers,

daily Le Soir reported. The military responded by carrying out a broad sweep against suspected militants in the region.
Liberte newspaper said police in Boumerdes, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) east of the capital, arrested 13 youths in an alleged weapons training camp run by remnants of the longtime insurgent group GSPC, which has sought to rebrand itself «al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb» _ an Arabic term used to refer to North Africa.

Algeria has been working to quell sporadic violence linked to an insurgency that broke out in 1992 after the army canceled legislative elections that an Islamic party was set to win. As many as 200,000 have died in the resulting violence, which peaked in the mid-1990s.
The al-Qaida affiliate claimed responsibility for double suicide bombings on the prime minister's office and a police station on April 11 that killed 30 people.