Algerian troops have killed seven armed rebels who crossed the border from neighboring Tunisia.

Algerian troops have killed seven armed rebels who crossed the border from neighboring Tunisia, the state news agency APS reported on Friday.

There has been less rebel violence in Algeria since the North African country ended its 1990s civil war that killed 200,000 people. But chaos in neighboring Libya has allowed rebels to strengthen their presence in the Maghreb.

APS said the rebels had crossed the border in a vehicle and had tried to flee to the Boudjelal mountain area, but there were surrounded and killed by Algerian troops near Tebessa, around 300 miles (480 km) east of Algiers.

Rebels have used the Chambi mountains across the border in Tunisia as a refuge in the past.

The risk from violence in Algeria was highlighted by the assault on the Amenas gas plant near the desert border with Libya just over a year ago. Forty oil workers were killed in the attack, all but one of them foreigners.

Tunisia is also battling hard-line group Ansar al-Sharia, one of the Islamist movements to emerge since the country's 2011 uprising. The group was this year listed as a foreign terrorist organization by Washington.

Turmoil and a weak military in Libya have allowed militants linked to al Qaeda to gain a foothold in the remote deserts there, some after fleeing from the French military intervention in Mali launched at the start of last year.