Algeria's intelligence second-in-command dies

ALGIERS, Aug 28 (Reuters) - Major-General Smain Lamari, who headed Algeria's Department of Counter-Espionage and Internal Security in the aftermath of 1992 elections, died on Tuesday after a long illness, a security source said.

The source, who did not want to named, declined to give details on Lamari's illness.

Lamari became deputy-chief of the intelligence apparatus in charge of secret operations against Islamist guerrillas and counter-espionage shortly after authorities scrapped parliamentary elections in 1992, which the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) was poised to win.

An Islamist uprising began shortly after. Up to 200,000 people were killed in a subsequent decade of violence.

Lamari played a key role in infiltrating Islamic armed groups, particularly the most radical Armed Islamic Group (GIA), security analysts said.

But his major achievement was the deal he struck with the Islamic Salvation Army (AIS) in 1997 convincing its leaders to give up the fight in return for amnesty, they added.

"He fought French occupation, and right after independence joined the army. He belongs to the old guard inside the security community here," Eshorouk's editor and security specialist Anis Rahmani told Reuters.

"But continuity will remain as long as the Algerian security system is not based on one person," Rahmani added.

The military wields huge influence over Algeria's politics since its independence from France in 1962.