By DPA
Algiers : A top official of the Al Qaeda terrorist network has been arrested in Algeria, police sources in the country’s capital said Tuesday.
Bouderbala Fateh, also known as Abdelfatah Abu Bassir, was taken into custody Monday by security forces in an apartment in an elegant residential district in Algiers.
During the arrest, police also confiscated more than 800 kg of explosives, a rocket launcher and three bombs ready to be used.
Fateh was the head of the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), which at the beginning of 2007 was incorporated into the Al Qaeda global network and re-baptized Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.
The group has claimed responsibility for several lethal terrorist attacks carried out in Algeria this year, including an attempt on the life of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika in which 22 people were killed in September.