 On February 24, 2000, there was a large change of guards in the military regions, where four commanders of the six were changed.From this reshuffling, the previous French army officers took power of the Algerian army and the shift in power correlated with the change of a national service and alteration of the ANP to a professional army.President Bouteflika, as Minister of Defence, nominated new commanders for military regions in August 2004.