Rebels ambush kills 14 Algerian soldiers

Rebels have killed at least 14 Algerian soldiers in an ambush during a patrol in the mountains east of Algiers.

The soldiers were returning from securing polling stations for Thursday's presidential election, which the government said was won by the country's 77-year-old incumbent, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, in a landslide. 

The attack is said to have come off the back of Bouteflika’s electoral victory at the weekend and seems to have taken place after a lapse in security.

No group has yet to claim responsibility for the attack.

The attack in Tizi Ouzou on Saturday, 120km east of the capital, was the deadliest in years against the country's security forces.

Algeria fought a 10-year civil war against the political party the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS), who supported the introduction of Islamic law in the 1990s, after invalidating a national election. 

Those fighting against the government are now largely confined to isolated regions, such as the Kabylie mountains.

The Kabylie mountains are populated by Berbers, North Africa's original inhabitants, who speak their own language and have long been disaffected from the central government.  The Tizi Ouzou region near Saturday's attack site had the lowest participation rate in the presidential election in the entire country.