20110507
reuters

ALGIERS (Reuters) - A journalist was shot dead on Friday in an area of Algeria where insurgents linked to al Qaeda are active, a security official said.

There was no confirmation the attack was carried out by al Qaeda-affiliated militants, but the killing revived memories of the 1990s when journalists were routinely targeted by Islamist insurgents fighting government security forces.

The journalist, Ahmed Nezar, was shot dead on Friday afternoon in his hometown of Baghlia, about 100 km (60 miles) east of the capital, the security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Reuters.

Nezar was a local freelance correspondent for several French-language newspapers in Algeria, an energy exporter which won its independence from France in 1962.

"The journalist lived in this dangerous area where several local officials have been killed in the past few years," the security official said.

Algeria is emerging from a conflict with Islamist militants which, at its height in the 1990s, killed an estimated 200,000 people. Security crackdowns and offers of amnesties to insurgents have helped to reduce the violence dramatically.

However, there has been an upsurge in attacks in the past few weeks. Last month, Islamist militants killed 13 soldiers in the mountainous Kabylie region east of Algiers, in their deadliest attack for months.

Six soldiers were killed the following day in the same region, and two gendarmes -- or paramilitary police -- were killed nearby late last month, security officials and local witnesses said.

Baghlia, which is also in the Kabylie region, has for years been a focus of attention for al Qaeda's north African branch, which is known as al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).

Local people and security officials say AQIM insurgents use threats of violence to extort money from farmers in and around Baghlia to help finance their operations.