2009 in Algeria - June

June

• June 1: Algerian Minister of Energy and Mines, Chakib Kelil, says that hydrocarbons revenues in 2009 will likely vary between $40 and $45 billion. He estimates that oil prices may reach $70 to $75 per barrel in 2010 if the United States and European economies recover. Until the conclusion of this year Kelil surmises oil prices will stabilize between $60 and $65 per barrel.

• June 2: Algerian security forces have arrested four men accused of plotting to abduct foreigners. One of these men, Abu Djendel, once worked as a keeper of a garden adjacent to the Homeland Security Directorate (DGSN), and Bastion 23 Castle. One group of persons watched foreigners to see which places they frequented, while another planned their abductions or targeted them for terrorist attacks.

• June 3: The North African wing of Al Qaeda put to death English hostage Edwin Dyer in Mali. The group had been threatening to kill Dwyer unless Abu Qatada, a Jordanian Islamist, was released from an English prison. Dwyer was assassinated on May 31 following the expiration of a second deadline imposed by Al Qaeda.

• June 8: A municipal guard was killed and two others injured by a roadside bomb near Tizi Ouzou on June 7. The bomb exploded in Mizrana as the vehicle arrived carrying the guards. The communal guard was created in 1996 to support security forces in municipalities.

• June 8: Algeria hopes to raise its natural gas exports to thirty billion cubic meters over the next five years according to Chakib Khelil, Minister of Energy and Mines. The volume exported via the Trans-Med gas pipeline linking Algeria to Italy will be increased by up to seven billion cubic meters.

• June 16: A group of Palestinian children arrived in Rafah on their way to Algeria. They will spend holidays there following psychotherapy following an attack by Israeli forces. The group is made of sixteen people, including nine children and seven guides

• June 16: An Algerian citizen residing in Lehdada in the Department of Tlemcen took hostages in the visa office of the Moroccan embassy, while carrying a large dagger in his hand. Security services managed to subdue the man after surrounding the premises around midday on Monday. The man resided near the border of Morocco and Algeria. The former captives are Moroccan except for one, who is of German nationality.

• June 20: Algeria's initial case of swine flu has been detected at Houari Boumediene Airport. The sick woman is an Algerian national who resides in Frankfurt, Germany and came to Algiers from Miami, Florida. She was conveyed to El Kettar Hospital for treatment.

• June 22: Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb is claiming responsibility for murdering 18 paramilitary policemen and 1 civilian. An attack on a security convoy for Chinese construction workers in Mansoura, Bordj Bou Arreridj Province, on June 17, is one of 10 carried out by AQIM between May 22 and June 18.

• June 25: Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb claims to have killed American aid worker, Chris Leggett, in Mauritania, on June 23. al Jazeera TV reports that Leggett was murdered for spreading Christianity. A native of Cleveland, Tennessee, Leggett taught at a centre specializing in computer sciences and languages in a working class section of Nouakchott. He was shot several times by unidentified gunmen.