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Mali - France - Chad - Algeria

Who is Mokhtar Belmokhtar?

After claiming that Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (Aqim) leader Abou Zeid has died in north Mali, Chad now says that its troops have killed Mokhtar Belmokhtar. Analysts say that the two deaths would effectively decapitate Al-Qaida in the area. So who is Mokhtar Belmokhtar?

Reuters/Belmokhtar Brigade/Handout
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  • Born in the 1970s in Algeria, Belmokhtar is one of the few jihadists in the Sahara region to have fought in Afghanistan. He took part in the war against the Soviet occupation in the 1980s and lost an eye in combat.
  • In the 1990s he fought against the Algerian government as a member of the Armed Islamic Group (GIA), the military wing of the Islamic Salvation Front (Fis), which had been denied its election victory by military intervention.
  • His special skills included kidnapping, the use of explosives and ambushes.
  • He went on to become a joint founder of the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, which evolved into Aqim.
  • In 2003 in Algeria he took part in the kidnapping of about 30 foreign tourists, some of whom were freed after a ransom was paid.
  • He has at least three nicknames – “Khaled”, “Le Borgne” (One-eye), due to his disability, “the Uncatchable” because intelligence services couldn’t catch him and “Marlboro”, due to his thriving business of smuggling of contraband cigarettes.
  • An Algerian court sentenced him to death in 2008 for the murder of 13 customs officers.
  • For nearly 10 years he was regarded as a key member of Aqim but reportedly fell out with Aqim chief Abou Zeid and formed the Khaled Abu al-Abbas Brigade, also known as Masked Brigade or the Signatories in Blood.
  • Although some observers believed that he was devoting himself completely to smuggling and other criminal activity, he reappeared on the political front with the attack on the In Amenas gas plant in Algeria, in which 38 hostages died. He said that the assault was a reprisal for France’s military intervention in Mali and it became clear that he still had ties to Al-Qaida.
  • On Saturday, a day after claiming that Abou Zeid was dead, the Chadian military claimed that it had killed Belmokhtar in an operation in the Ifogha mountains near the Algerian border in northern Chad.

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