Algerian army kills four militants east of Algiers: ministry

ALGIERS (Reuters) - The Algerian army has killed four suspected Islamist militants east of the capital Algiers, the defense ministry said on Thursday, in an operation that seized weapons and explosives including a suicide bomb belt. The operation took place early on Thursday morning in the Boumerdès area, the ministry said in a statement issued via the state APS news agency. The oil-producing North African state continues to fight elements of Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and also remnants of an al Qaeda splinter group, the Caliphate Soldiers, who have declared allegiance to Islamic State jihadists in Iraq and Syria. (Writing by Patrick Markey; Editing by Mark Heinrich)