Algerian troops killed two armed Islamists in the restive Boumerdes province east of the capital where al-Qaida forces are active, a security source said on Monday.

The two men were killed in an army ambush at around midnight on Sunday in the Baghlia area of Boumerdes, some 50 kilometers (30 miles) outside Algiers, he said, cited by the national APS news agency.

Canadian Foreign Minster John Baird said Sunday on a visit to Algeria that the use of chemical weapons in the Syria conflict was a "crime against humanity".

"The use of chemical weapons by President Bashar Assad's government against the children of the Syrian people is a crime against humanity," he said at a news conference with his host and counterpart Ramtane Lamamra.

Ailing Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika's massive reorganization of the cabinet, in which he gave key posts to close allies, aims to ensure he has control over his succession next year, analysts and media say.

The reshuffle on Wednesday, the largest since 1990, saw nearly a third of ministers lose their jobs and came after Bouteflika had put a confidante as head of the ruling National Liberation Front (FLN) and trimmed the sails of the powerful DRS military intelligence agency.

Algeria's President Abdelaziz Bouteflika made several top cabinet appointments Wednesday, his office said, in a surprise reshuffle seen as strengthening the ageing leader's hand seven months ahead of presidential polls.

The changes to the government headed by Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal affect key ministries, including interior, defense and foreign affairs, the presidency said in a statement.

Algerian troops have killed two armed Islamists east of the capital, the defense ministry said on Monday, as media reported an attack on a military convoy left two soldiers dead.

The ministry said two Islamists were killed in separate operations on Sunday evening, one of them during clashes with security forces in the Tadmait area of Tizi Ouzou, about 110 kilometers (70 miles) from Algiers.

Algerian soldiers killed two armed Islamists on Thursday in a military operation east of the capital, the defense ministry said.

The incident occurred in Ain El Hamra, in the Boumerdes region, with a weapons cache recovered in the operation, the ministry added, without elaborating.

Algeria's ruling National Liberation Front Thursday chose Ammar Saidani as its new secretary general, after its central committee voted him through with a show of hands following a seven-month crisis.

Saidani, 63, former president of the National Popular Assembly, was the sole candidate for the post, and replaces Abdelaziz Belkhadem, who was ousted as the head of the party in February.

Two long-held Algerian detainees at Guantanamo Bay have been returned to their homeland, the first such transfer since U.S. President Barack Obama renewed his pledge to close the controversial jail.

The Pentagon announced Thursday that Nabil Said Hadjarab, 34, and Mutia Sadiq Ahmad Sayyab, 36, were handed over to the government of Algeria, completing a process first outlined last month by the United States.

The decapitated bodies of three civilians, including a father and his son, were found in western Algeria, near the city of Tlemcen, an Algerian newspaper reported Friday citing security sources.

The three victims set off on a hunting expedition on Wednesday and did not return, according to El-Watan, prompting their relatives to alert the police, who discovered their corpses on Thursday.

An Al-Qaida-linked militia founded by wanted Islamist commander Mokhtar Belmokhtar announced on Thursday it had joined forces with another armed group to take revenge against France for its military offensive in Mali.

Belmokhtar's Mauritania-based Al-Mulathameen Brigade (The Brigade of the Masked Ones) and the Mali-based Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO) said they had joined forces under a single banner to unite Muslims across the region.