ALGIERS, Aug 8 (Reuters) - Algeria's army has killed nine militants in the troubled Kabylie region as part of an offensive against al Qaeda's North Africa affiliate, a newspaper reported on Wednesday.

El Watan daily said the army also found an ammunition cache during the operation, which took place over the past three days in Bouira province, some 110 km (68 miles) east of the capital Algiers.

It said the militants were thought to have belonged to a rebel cell that plotted a suicide truck bombing on a military barracks in the same province last month, which killed eight soldiers.

The bombing was claimed by the al Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb, which said last month it was planning a violent campaign against "infidels" and government forces in the Maghreb region and urged Muslims to stay away from possible targets.

The group, previously known as the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), swore allegiance to al Qaeda last year.

Algerian security forces have stepped up assaults on its hideouts after the group switched its focus away from hit-and-run attacks on police in the countryside and onto high profile bombings in towns.

Founded in 1998, the GSPC began as an offshoot of another armed group that was waging an armed revolt to establish an Islamic state.

The uprising began in 1992 after army-backed authorities, fearing an Iranian-style revolution, scrapped a parliamentary election that an Islamist party was set to win. Up to 200,000 people were killed in the ensuing bloodshed.

The violence has subsided in recent years but some killing continues, mainly in Kabylie and nearby areas.

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