Algeria replaces three senior security officials: media

Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has replaced three senior army officers with responsibilities for domestic security matters and for his own security, the media reported Saturday.

The three, all major generals, headed the North African nation’s counter-espionage unit, presidential security and the Republican Guard, the newspapers El-Watan and Liberte and television channel Ennahar reported.

There has not yet been any official announcement of the changes, and it was not clear if they were due to retirement or to sanctions against the officers involved.

The daily El-Watan was the only paper to refer to the reasons, saying they were a result of “errors” and “negligence”.

It spoke of an “accident” last week in which two security guards sparked panic at the Zeralda presidential residence west of Algiers by firing shots.

Bouteflika, who was re-elected to a fourth term in April 2014, had already made major changes in the intelligence and security departments the previous autumn.