Algerian soldiers killed five gunmen during anti-militant operations, the defense ministry and army said Friday, a day after raiding the suspected hideout of jihadists who beheaded a French hostage.

Three suspected militants were killed on Friday in the area of Bouria, 120 kilometers (75 miles) east of Algiers, the ministry said in a statement.

Algerian soldiers killed four gunmen during anti-militant operations, the defense ministry said Friday, a day after raiding the suspected hideout of jihadists behind the beheading of a French hostage.

Three suspected militants were killed on Friday in the area of Bouria, 120 kilometers (75 miles) east of Algiers, the ministry said in a statement.

President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, whose ailing health has raised concerns, held talks Wednesday with Algeria's veteran diplomat Lakhdar Brahimi, national news agency APS said.

It gave no details on the meeting with Brahimi, who resigned in May from the post as U.N.-Arab League envoy on the Syrian conflict.

Algerian soldiers shot dead three armed Islamists southeast of the capital on Tuesday, a defense ministry statement said.

It said special forces killed the three militants in the Biskra region, 400 kilometers (250 miles) from Algiers, and that guns and ammunition were recovered.

The Algerian army has killed five foreign "criminals" near the border with Niger, the defense ministry said on Friday.

"In an ambush by elements of the People's National Army in the Tirrine area, near the Algeria-Niger border, five criminals were shot dead and four others wounded, including one of Libyan nationality," it said in a statement.

Algeria is hunting 15 suspects in the kidnapping and beheading of French tourist Herve Gourdel on terrorism, kidnapping and murder charges, a judicial source said on Thursday.

The fugitives are all Algerians and include the head of Jund al-Khilifa, or "Soldiers of the Caliphate," a group linked to Islamic State jihadists in Iraq and Syria, the source told Agence France-Presse.

A head-on collision between two buses killed 16 people  Tuesday on a highway in north-central Algeria, authorities said.

Another 30 people were injured in the accident, which happened on the major highway linking the city of Laghouat to the town of Afflou, civil defense Colonel Farouk Achour told Agence France-Presse.

Algeria has identified suspects in the kidnapping and beheading of French tourist Herve Gourdel, the justice minister said Tuesday, as the North Africa country widened its probe into the brutal execution.

Gourdel was seized on September 21 by Jund al-Khilifa, or "Soldiers of the Caliphate," a group linked to the Islamic State jihadists, while trekking in a national park in eastern Algeria.

Thousands of people joined a silent march Saturday in the southern French city of Nice in memory of Herve Gourdel, the hiker beheaded last week by Algerian militants linked to the Islamic State group. 

Gourdel was seized on September 21 by the IS-linked group Jund al-Khilifa, or "Soldiers of the Caliphate", while trekking in a national park in northeastern Algeria.

France said Thursday it will increase support to Syrian opposition forces fighting Islamic State jihadists, after the execution of a citizen in Algeria by militants tied to the group.

Security will be reinforced across France in public spaces and on public transport, after threats made by IS against French citizens, according to a statement from President Francois Hollande's office following emergency defense talks.