Islamist militants kill 11 soldiers in Algeria ambush

ALGIERS, Algeria, July 19 (UPI) -- A militant ambush killed 11 soldiers in a northern region of Algeria, according to reports.

The incident occurred Thursday, July 16, in a forested area of Ain Delfa, 150 miles southeast of the capital Algiers.

Few details are available, including which group perpetrated the attack, but armed militant groups have been active in Ain Delfa dating back to the 1990s during Algeria's civil war, according to the BBC.

Though relatively stable, Algeria is home to Islamic extremist groups that operate in the country's remote mountainous regions.

Al-Qaida in the Lands of the Islamic Maghreb is an Algeria-based Sunni Muslim jihadist group that, according to the U.S. National Counter-Terrorism Center, employs "conventional terrorist tactics, including guerrilla-style ambushes, mortar, rocket, and IED attacks."

In September 2014, Jund al-Khilafah fi Ard al-Jazayer, or "Soldiers of the Caliphate in Algeria," split from AQIM and declared allegiance to Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

Militants from the IS affiliate in October kidnapped and beheaded 55-year-old Frenchman Hervé Gourdel in Algeria, depicting the execution in an online video. The militants said France had failed to respond to a demand to drop out of the U.S.-led coalition against IS forces in Iraq and Syria.