Al-Qaeda claims Algerian ambush: SITE

Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb claims to have carried out an attack in Algeria which is believed to have killed 18 police and a civilian, US-based monitoring group SITE Intelligence said on Sunday.

The statement circulated by AQIM, the North African wing of Al-Qaeda, includes a claim of responsibility for last Wednesday's ambush on a security convoy for Chinese construction workers in Mansoura, Bordj Bou Arreridj province in Algeria, SITE said.

AQIM claims to have killed 24 Algerian paramilitary police in the strike but denies that it killed "innocents" during the attack, alleging that the Algerian police intentionally killed a civilian, the monitoring group said.

The AQIM statement says the Mansoura attack was one of 10 it carried out in Algeria between May 22 and June 18, killing or wounding more than 73 members of Algerian security forces, according to SITE.

Wednesday's attack was the biggest by AQIM since the suicide bombing of a police academy killed 48 people in August last year.

The military convoy was returning to barracks after escorting Chinese construction workers to a motorway project when it came under attack on Wednesday evening.

The Chinese group CITIC-CRCC has a contract to build a section of motorway from Algiers to Bordj Bou Arreridj.