(IsraelNN.com) At least 40 Al Qaeda terrorists were killed earlier this week by a plague called the Black Death. 

The same disease that devastated Europe in the Middle Ages claimed terrorists training this week in a camp in Algeria.  The dead were members of a group called AQLIM (Al Qaeda in the Land of the Islamic Maghreb), the largest and most powerful Al-Qaeda group outside the Middle East. The disease is accompanied by horrific symptoms, causing terrible suffering to its victims.

One security source told the British paper The Sun, which broke the story, "This is the deadliest weapon yet in the war against terror. Most of the terrorists do not have the basic medical supplies needed to treat the disease. It spreads quickly and kills within hours. This will be really worrying Al-Qaeda."

Al Qaeda also fears that surviving terrorists will give themselves up in order to seek treatment.

The Sun reported that the last outbreak of the disease killed 30,000 Londoners in 1665.  Deaths nowadays are rare, because the disease can be treated with antibiotics, and it has become virtually unknown in the developed world.