N’DJAMENA: The Chadian army has killed, an Algerian national and Afghanistan veteran Islamist leader, during an operation in northern Mali, Chad claimed.
Mokhtar Belmokhtar, the one-eyed Islamist leader who allegedly masterminded an attack on an Algerian gas plant that left thirty seven foreign hostages dead in January, was shot dead during an operation in the Ifogha mountains on Saturday said the Chadian army, whose troops have been at the forefront of the hunt for Al-Qaeda-linked fighters hiding in northern Mali.
There was no immediate confirmation of Belmokhtar’s death from elsewhere but US Republican Representative Ed Royce, who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee, hailed the reported killing.  “This would be a hard blow to the collection of jihadists operating across the region that are targeting American diplomats and energy workers,” the US lawmaker said in a statement.
Belmokhtar had broken away from Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) weeks ago to form a group called Signatories in Blood.
