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| - An armed Islamist, described as a "dangerous terrorist", was captured during an anti-terror operation in Jijel province in northeastern Algeria, the defence ministry said Thursday. "During a combing manoeuvre in the Tamendjar area... in Jijel yesterday, a dangerous terrorist by the name of Rezkane Ahcene, calling himself 'Abu Dahdah', who joined terrorist groups in 1994, has been captured," the ministry said in a statement. Algerian authorities use the term "terrorist" to describe armed Islamists who have been active in the country since the early 1990s. In early December, the ministry reported that three Islamists had been killed in clashes with the army in the same province, along with an Algerian soldier. The arrest on Wednesday also follows the ministry announcing the apprehension of 17 other people supporting "terrorist groups" in various parts of the country since the start of this month. State media has recently reported that the army thwarted a plan by Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) to redeploy. AQIM's leader Abdelmalek Droukdel was killed in June by French forces in northern Mali, but was replaced in November by Abu Obaida Yusuf al-Annabi, a well-known AQIM veteran and Algerian national. bur-agr/dwo/sw
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