The killing of an explosives expert for al-Qaeda's north African affiliate shows that Algeria's military response to an upsurge in deadly bombings is bearing fruit, analysts and security officials said.
But they added that successors are likely to emerge and the growing use of suicide attacks will be difficult to overcome.
Sofiane el-Fassila, the alleged mastermind behind recent suicide attacks in Algeria, and two accomplices were shot over the weekend at a roadblock erected by security forces in Boghni, officials and news reports said.
Algerian forces also collected a large number of explosives, apparently for use in a large-scale bombing on the eve of the Muslim Eid el-Fitr holiday, the Algerian daily Liberte reported.
The death of el-Fassila, a regional "emir" with the group, is "clearly a heavy blow, but that doesn't rule out that there could be attacks soon -- unfortunately," a French counterterrorism official said on Wednesday.
"If he's replaced, it will surely be by someone who is just as extremist," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons.
After April 11 suicide bombings in and around Algeria's capital, security forces have stepped up a crackdown against an insurgent group calling itself al-Qaeda in Islamic North Africa.
It has included muscular sweeps of suspected rebel hideouts, expanded use of roadblocks and checkpoints, and intelligence-gathering among residents in areas where the militants roam.
"All this strategy laid out by the security forces -- use of intelligence, crisscrossing of the terrain, military intervention -- appears to be bearing fruit now," said Louis Caprioli, former assistant director at the French counterterrorism agency DST.
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