With its rich history, winding white-washed alleyways and enviable Mediterranean setting, the Kasbah of Algiers has been a world heritage site for 20 years but is now threatened by neglect and decay.

The city within a city, crowned by a 16th-century hilltop citadel overlooking the bay and studded with Ottoman palaces, hammams, mosques and souks, has been rocked down the centuries by earthquakes, fires, floods and conflict.

Tunisia's army on Monday bombarded suspected jihadist positions in a rugged mountain range near the Algerian border, as it kept up operations against Islamists following a deadly ambush on troops.

The offensive was launched on August 1, after eight soldiers were found with their throats cut after being ambushed by militants, and at a time of deep political crisis in Tunisia.

International arrest warrants have been issued for former energy minister Chekib Khelil and eight others in connection with a corruption case at energy firm Sonatrach, Algeria's prosecutor general said Monday.

Khelil's wife, their two children, his right-hand man Farid Bedjaoui and the former head of his office Redha Hamche also face arrest, Belkacem Zeghmati told a news conference in Algiers.

Gunmen have killed three policemen in an ambush in the eastern Algerian region of Kabylie and lost one of their own, daily newspaper El-Watan reported on Wednesday.

"A police patrol was attacked by a group of terrorists on the road to the new hospital in Azeffoun" on Tuesday afternoon, some 60 kilometers (35 miles) north of the city of Tizi Ouzou, the paper said.

Algeria's High Islamic Council condemned on Wednesday a group of Berbers who organized a public lunch during the Ramadan fast to protest against its official imposition.

During the day on Saturday, some 500 "non-fasters" gathered in Tizi Ouzou, east of the capital, where they publicly ate, drank and smoked to make their point.

Tunisia's army pressed ahead Saturday with operations against Islamists in a remote mountain range after a deadly ambush on its troops heightened a crisis sparked by a political assassination.

The authorities kept a tight lid on the overland and helicopter raids launched Friday in the Mount Chaambi area near the border with Algeria where Islamist militants including veterans of a revolt in northern Mali are suspected to be hiding out.

Tunisian forces launched a land and air operation against Islamist militants near the Algerian border on Friday, the military said, as Tunis battles a crisis sparked by a political slaying.

"A huge operation, with ground and air units, was launched at dawn to clean up the (Chaambi) mountain" area, armed forces spokesman Taoufik Rahmouni told Tunisian media.

Algeria's army has reinforced its forces along the eastern border with Tunisia, Interior Minister Daho Ould Kablia said on Thursday, days after the killing of eight Tunisian soldiers.

The soldiers were found on Monday with their throats cut after being ambushed by jihadist militants in Mount Chaambi, an area near the border with Algeria.

Four Algerian soldiers have been killed in attacks in the east and south of the country, a security source and media reports said on Tuesday.

"A captain was shot dead late on Monday at Yakourene in Kabylie by gunmen as he was returning to barracks 50 kilometers (30 miles) from Tizi Ouzou," east of Algiers, a security source told AFP.

Eight Tunisian soldiers were killed Monday in a firefight with "terrorists" near the Algerian border where the army has been tracking al-Qaida-linked militants for months, national television said.

"Eight soldiers were killed as they exchanged fire with a terrorist group in Mount Chaambi," state broadcaster Wataniya 1 said, while other Tunisian media outlets put the toll at between seven and nine.