ALGIERS (Reuters) - Algeria’s army killed eight armed men on Friday in Khenchela province, 700 km (435 miles) east of the capital Algiers, the Defence Ministry said.

The gunmen, described as “dangerous terrorists”, were killed in an ambush and the soldiers seized assault rifles, the ministry said in a statement. It did not identify the men.

Another armed man was killed later in an ongoing operation, the ministry said in another statement.

Algeria emerged from a conflict with armed Islamists in the 1990s that left an estimated 200,000 dead. But al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and small bands of fighters allied to Islamic State have been active in remote parts of the sprawling, oil-producing North African country.

(The headline was corrected to read eight dead)