Blast kills Algerian guard near Morocco border: ministry

An Algerian border guard was killed and two wounded on Wednesday evening when a bomb went off near the Moroccan border, the defence ministry said Thursday.

The home-made device exploded as they passed during a patrol to "secure the borders and tackle organised crime", it said in a statement.

The blast happened at 8:45pm (1945 GMT) Wednesday in the Deglen district of Tlemcen province, it said.

"All the necessary security measures were taken to seal off the area and clarify the causes and circumstances of this terrorist act," the ministry said.

President Abdelmadjid Tebboune offered his condolences to the family of the guard who was killed, in a tweet.

The border was closed in 1994 amid tensions between the regional rivals and has remained shut ever since.

Algeria in August cut diplomatic ties with Morocco over what it called "hostile acts", and later closed its airspace to Moroccan flights.

That came after Morocco won US recognition of its sovereignty over the disputed Western Sahara last year in exchange for normalising ties with Israel.

Algeria has traditionally supported the Polisario Front independence movement in the former Spanish colony, as well as the Palestinian cause.