Algeria wildfire death toll rises as 25 soldiers killed

The interior ministry said earlier that fires raging east of the capital Algiers had killed at least 7 civilians.

Algeria’s president announced that 25 soldiers have been killed saving residents from the wildfires ravaging forests and villages east of the capital, adding to the fire death toll this week in the North African nation. President Abdelmadjid Tebboune tweeted late on Tuesday that the soldiers saved 100 citizens from the blazes in two areas in the mountainous Kabylie region, home of the Berbers. Four other soldiers were seriously burned fighting the fires and seven others also had burns, the Ministry of National Defence said. The interior ministry said earlier that the fires had killed at least seven civilians.