Four Police Shot Dead in Algeria's Kabylie Region

Gunmen in Algeria's restive Kabylie region on Monday shot dead four policemen, less than two weeks ahead of legislative polls, a security official said.

The four were patrolling on the outskirts of Mekla town when another vehicle approached. The attackers "opened fire with Kalashnikov rifles and left them no chance to fire back. Two were killed and two were seriously wounded", the official said on condition of anonymity.

The attackers managed to get away and the victims were taken to a health center in Mekla, a small town of around 20,000 people close to the regional capital Tizi Ouzou and some 100 kilometers east of Algiers.

The two wounded officers died of their injuries in hospital, said security sources later quoted by APS news agency.

In the last major attack, on April 10, a bomb blast killed a soldier and wounded another while the military was combing a region north of Tizi Ouzou known to harbor militant Islamist groups.

Algeria will hold a legislative election on May 10 seen as a test of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika's reform package in the wake of pro-democracy uprisings in neighboring countries.