By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Suspected Islamic militants attacked a police checkpoint in Algeria with rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns Sunday, killing five officers and injuring three others, according to a newspaper report.
Algeria's Kabylie region, east of the capital Algiers, has faced a recent upsurge of violence by a Salafist group that claims ties to al-Qaida, including seven car bombings on Feb. 13.
In Sunday's attack, assailants are said to have fired a grenade on a police sport utility vehicle at a key highway crossroads as officers were changing shifts, setting the vehicle ablaze, daily Liberte reported.
A second SUV came under machine-gun fire, Liberte reported in an article to be published Monday, citing witness accounts.
Security forces dispatched reinforcements, prompting a two-hour firefight. It was not immediately clear whether any of the assailants were detained or injured.
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