Official: Niger army kills 3 alleged AQ-linked men
September 15, 2011 02:03 PM EST | 
NIAMEY, Niger — Niger's defense minister says the army has attacked a four-car convoy carrying suspected members of an al-Qaida-linked cell, killing three.
Mahamadou Karidio says some three dozen youth held forcibly by the militants also were freed during the raid.
Karidio told The Associated Press by telephone that soldiers destroyed two of the four vehicles and recovered a large stash of arms. The incident happened in the country's far north, in the region of Adrar Rabouss.
He described the combatants as belonging to Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, an organization whose footprint has grown at an alarming rate in Africa's Sahara region.
