Algerian troops find huge ‘arsenal of war’ near Libyan border

The Algerian military has discovered a huge cache of weapons near the border with Libya, which included "hundreds" of surface-to-air missiles, rockets and landmines, an Algerian security source said. "It is an arsenal of war," the source said on condition of anonymity, Reuters reported Thursday. He added that the armaments, which were found in the South-eastern Algerian town of Illizi, most likely belonged to militants, as well as Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, other militant groups in the region including Ansar al-Sharia (Tunisia and Libya), and the Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa or MUJWA, scattered this year by the French offensive in Mali. The latter recently announced it was joining forces with another group led by veteran Algerian fighter Mokhtar Belmokhtar, who masterminded the attack on the Amenas gas plant on the border with Libya in January, in which nearly 40 foreign contractors were killed.