Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika hit out on Tuesday against what he said were moves to undermine his office and the army, suggesting both were falling prey to political infighting.

"The fictitious conflict ... within the ranks of the People's National Army is linked to a destabilization plan developed by those troubled by Algeria's regional weight and influence," he said in comments published by state media.

Algerian search teams recovered one of the black box flight recorders of a military plane on Wednesday in their quest for clues to why it crashed killing all but one of 78 people on board.

Algerians began three days of mourning for the dead from the crash of the C-130 Hercules transport aircraft in the mountainous Oum El Bouaghi region of the northeast on Tuesday -- the country's worst air disaster in a decade.

A retired senior Algerian general has called on President Abdelaziz Bouteflika to step down "with dignity" and not run for a fourth term in April, in an interview published Wednesday.

Hocine Benhadid also accused the president's inner circle of "treason" after Amar Saidani, the ruling party's secretary general, publicly accused the powerful military intelligence chief of interfering in politics to the detriment of the country's security.

Search teams combed the wreckage of an Algerian military plane Wednesday for clues to why it crashed in a mountainous region killing all but one of 78 people on board.

Algerians began three days of national mourning after the C-130 Hercules aircraft carrying 74 passengers -- soldiers and their families -- and four crew came down in bad weather on Tuesday in the northeast Oum El Bouaghi region.

A military aircraft carrying 78 people crashed in Algeria's mountainous northeast with just one survivor on Tuesday, in one of the country's deadliest air disasters, the defense ministry said.

The C-130 Hercules aircraft, which came down in the Oum El Bouaghi region, was carrying 74 passengers -- soldiers and their families -- as well as four crew members, the ministry said.

A court in the Algerian desert city of Ghardaia Sunday detained 10 people for their alleged involvement in sectarian clashes in the area that killed five people.

The city of 90,000 inhabitants has been rocked since December by clashes between the Chaamba community of Arab origin and the majority Mozabites, indigenous Berbers belonging to the Ibadi Muslim sect.

A split has blown open within Algeria's ruling party ahead of an April presidential election, after its leader accused the powerful intelligence chief of opposing the ailing incumbent's re-election.

President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, in power for 15 years, has yet to say if his health will permit him to stand for a fourth term following a mini-stroke that confined him to hospital in Paris for three months last year.

A Berber died of his wounds Thursday in Algeria's desert city of Ghardaia, bringing to five the number killed during weeks of violence between two rival communities, local sources said.

The latest death came as the interior minister and police chief visited the city of 90,000 inhabitants, which has been rocked since December by clashes between the Chaamba community of Arab origin and the majority Mozabites, indigenous Berbers belonging to the Ibadi Muslim sect.

Tunisians on Thursday marked 12 turbulent months since the assassination of opposition politician Chokri Belaid, with his family still demanding to know what happened despite the alleged assassin being shot dead this week.

The charismatic leftist and virulent critic of the Islamist party Ennahda, then in power, was gunned down outside his Tunis home on February 6, 2013.

A firefight between security forces and suspected Islamists holed up in a building in the Tunisian capital left a policeman and seven militants dead, the interior ministry said on Tuesday.

"Seven terrorists died. A member of the National Guard was killed and another wounded," a ministry source told Agence France Presse.