Algeria arrests jihadist linked to Paris Hyper Cacher attacker

Algerian security forces have foiled a “terrorist plot” masterminded by a militant with links to France-based jihadist Amedy Coulibaly and the Islamic State group, the Al-Khabar daily reports.

Citing “well-placed security sources,” the newspaper says early results of an investigation “show a strong link between the head of the terrorist cell” and Coulibaly, who in 2015 killed a municipal police officer then four hostages in the Hyper Cacher kosher supermarket in Paris before being killed.

The alleged head of the Algerian cell, Mohamed Yacine Aknouche, was sentenced by a French court in 2004 to eight years in prison for taking part in a failed plan to blow up a Christmas market in the eastern city of Strasbourg.

The French-Algerian dual national was arrested this week along with a minor and a third person whose identity has not been revealed, in Ain Tagourait, 60 kilometers (40 miles) west of Algiers, Al-Khabar says.

During a raid on Aknouche’s apartment, security forces found “dozens of photos” of places he was hoping to attack, including army installations, it said.

It said the investigation had uncovered a link between Aknouche and “murderous attacks in European countries… committed by Daesh,” an Arabic acronym for IS.

— AFP