Algerian army defuses French landmines

Oct 8, 2009

ALGIERS (AFP) – The Algerian army in September destroyed 5,163 landmines laid by French troops along the country's eastern and western borders, the APS news agency said.

The weapons were part of a total of 415,829 mines destroyed by the army in a latest operation by September 30, according to APS.

The landmines date back to Algeria's war of liberation from French rule in 1954-62.

Since 1962, the army has destroyed more than eight million of the 11 million mines laid along the borders of the country.

In 2007, France gave Algeria maps of the minefields laid on what were known as the Challe and Morice Lines on the eastern and western borders between 1956 and 1959.

The mines were laid to prevent infiltration into Algeria from Morocco and Tunisia by fighters of Algeria's National Liberation Army (ALN).