Al-QAEDA linked jihadist Mokhtar Belmokhtar, who allegedly masterminded the siege of an Algerian gas plant in which 38 hostages died, has been killed in a US air strike, Libya’s internationally recognised government said on Sunday.
‘American jets conducted an operation which resulted in the deaths of Mokhtar Belmokhtar and a group of Libyans belonging to a terrorist organisation in eastern Libya,’ said the statement, which was posted on Facebook. The Pentagon said Belmokhtar had been the target of the strike but did not confirm he had been killed.
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.
‘I can confirm that the target of last night’s counterterrorism strike in Libya was Mokhtar Belmokhtar,’ Pentagon spokesman Colonel Steve Warren said in a statement. The strike was carried out by US aircraft. We are continuing to assess the results of the operation and will provide more details as appropriate.’
The US did not immediately confirm more details of the operation. Washington has in the past used drones to strike targets in the North African region, but the New York Times reported this was the first US air strike of any kind carried out in Libya since the fall of Muammar Gadaffi’s government in 2011.
The last US operation in Libya was in 2014, when special forces captured Ahmed Abu Khattala, one of the alleged organisers of the attack against the US consulate in Benghazi in 2012 that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans. The Libyan statement said the operation took place ‘after consultation with the Libyan transitional government’ based in the eastern city of Tobruk.
Prime Minister Abdullah al-Thani voiced his ‘support’, saying the operation was ‘part of international aid that has long been sought in the fight against terrorism’.
Libya’s Lana news agency cited an official from the internationally recognised government as saying the strikes had targeted a farm south of Ajdabiya, some 160 kilometres (100 miles) west of Benghazi, as Belmokhtar was holding a meeting with leaders from other extremist groups including UN-listed terror organisation Ansar al-Sharia. Belmokhtar was previously thought to have been killed in Mali, but security sources said last year that he had moved into Libya.
Born in 1972 in Algeria, he said in a rare 2007 interview that he was drawn away from home by his fascination with the exploits of the mujahedeen combating the Soviet invaders of Afghanistan, whom he joined in 1991 when he was barely 19. It was in Afghanistan that he claims to have lost his eye when it was hit by shrapnel, and where he had his first contact with Al-Qaeda.
He returned to Algeria in 1993, eventually joining the group that became Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. But he was pushed out as one of AQIM’s top two leaders in northern Mali for what one regional security official said were his ‘continued divisive activities despite several warnings’. A Malian official cited AQIM as saying that Belmokhtar, whose nickname ‘Mr Marlboro’ came from his reputation as a cigarette smuggling baron, had been ‘dismissed for straying from the right path’.
A scathing Al-Qaeda letter criticising him hit the headlines in 2013 after it was found in the wake of French armed intervention Mali. Belmokhtar founded his Al-Qaeda breakaway group ‘Signatories in Blood’ group in 2012, later merging it with MUJAO, one of the jihadist groups that seized control of northern Mali in early 2012, to form the Al-Murabitoun group. Along with the Algerian siege, Belmokhtar also claimed a double suicide bombing in Niger that killed 20 people in May 2013.
Al-Murabitoun last month said it had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State jihadist group – but Belmokhtar immediately distanced himself from the declaration and vowed continued backing for Al-Qaeda in what was interpreted as evidence of a serious power struggle within the organisation. Libya has descended into chaos since a NATO-backed revolt murdered longtime leader Gadaffi in 2011. It has rival governments and parliaments, and powerful militias are battling for influence and a share of its oil wealth.
Jihadist groups have exploited the lawlessness, which has also prompted a huge influx of migrants trying to make the dangerous Mediterranean crossing to Europe, with shipwrecks leaving hundreds dead and the EU straining to respond.
• The United States is considering setting up additional bases in Iraq similar to a new hub planned in Anbar province to help Iraqi forces battle the Islamic State group, the Pentagon said Thursday. Establishing more bases to get US military advisers closer to the battlefront would probably require yet more American troops to deploy to Iraq beyond the 450 reinforcements announced by the White House on Wednesday.
The Pentagon raised the possibility of more bases a day after President Barack Obama’s administration unveiled plans to send dozens of advisers to Anbar to help Iraqi forces eventually recapture Ramadi, which fell to the IS jihadists last month. The advisers and other US troops headed to Anbar will operate out of Taqaddum Air Base, which is located only 22 miles (37 kilometres) from Ramadi.
Pentagon spokesman Colonel Steven Warren told reporters that the new hub at Taqaddum could be the first of a number of new bases across the country for US military advisers, depending on how things turn out in the battle to retake Ramadi. What we’re doing in Al-Taqaddum is something we’re considering doing elsewhere,’ Warren said. Asked how many new bases might be set up, Warren said: ‘Several I would think.’
Establishing new bases for advisers might mean more troops ordered to Iraq but ‘not necessarily,’ Warren said, because forces already on the ground could be shifted to the forward bases. Prospective sites for new bases were already being looked at, but much would hinge on the results of the advisory effort at Taqaddum, he said. We are actively considering where we can establish other (bases),’ he said. ‘At the same time, our thought process will be informed by what happens at al-Taqaddum.’
The US military’s top officer, General Martin Dempsey, told reporters last Thursday during a trip to Europe that if the advisory mission in Anbar proved successful, more such bases could be set up. Dempsey compared the base at Taqaddum to a ‘lily pad’ that would allow the US ‘to encourage the Iraqi security forces forward’.
‘As they go forward, they may exceed the reach of the particular lily pad. We’re looking all the time to see if additional sites might be necessary,’ said Dempsey, according to an account posted on the Defence Department website. The general, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of staff, said he did not anticipate the need for another base in Anbar province but ‘I could foresee one in the corridor that runs from Baghdad to Tikrit to Kirkuk over into Mosul’.
The White House played down the military’s talk of new bases. Spokesman Josh Earnest said there were ‘no immediate plans’ to open another base in Iraq. Obama has ruled out putting combat troops on the ground, fearing it may re-entangle US forces in a war he fought hard to end.
