News Digest

Algeria gas plant jihadist Belmokhtar ‘killed in US strike’

A militant who launched a deadly attack on an Algerian gas plant has been killed by a US airstrike, Libya’s government has said. The U.S. Department of Defence said on Sunday that it was assessing the results of an airstrike it had carried out against “an al Qaeda-associated terrorist in Libya”. Pentagon spokesman Colonel Steve Warren said veteran jihadist Mokhtar Belmokhtar was the target, but could not confirm if he had been killed. Libya’s recognised government said Belmokhtar had been killed by the airstrike. An Islamist with ties to Libyan militants, however, said the airstrikes missed Mokhtar Belmokhtar, instead killing four members of a Libyan extremist group the U.S. has linked to the September 11, 2012, attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.

I can confirm that the target of last night’s counterterrorism strike in Libya was Mokhtar Belmokhtar.

Pentagon spokesman Colonel Steve Warren

Col. Warren said the military believes the strike was successful and hit the target. Islamist commander Belmokhtar, nicknamed variously as “The Uncatchable”, “Mr Marlboro” and “The One-Eyed”, was the leader of the north African Al-Murabitoun militant group and a former chief of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. Wanted for terrorist activities in several countries, he was the alleged mastermind behind the 2013 siege of an Algerian gas plant in which 38 mostly Western hostages were killed.

Belmokhtar has a long history of leading terrorist activities as a member of (al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb), is the operational leader of the al-Qaida-associated al-Murabitun organization in northwest Africa and maintains his personal allegiance to al-Qaida.

Pentagon spokesman Colonel Steve Warren.