French forces have killed the leader of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), Algerian Abdelmalek Droukdel, in northern Mali, France’s defence minister said.
French forces have killed the leader of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), Algerian Abdelmalek Droukdel, in northern Mali, France’s defence minister said.
Droukdel was killed on Thursday near the Algerian border, where the group has bases from which it has carried out attacks and abductions of Westerners in the sub-Saharan Sahel zone, Defence Minister Florence Parly tweeted Friday.
“Many close associates” of Droukdel — who commanded several affiliate jihadist groups across the lawless region — were also “neutralised”, she added.
Born in 1971 in a poor neighbourhood of Algiers, Droukdel took part in the founding in Algeria of the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), a terrorist organisation which played a big role in Alegria’s “black decade”.
Abdelaziz Bouteflika, elected Algerian president in 1999, managed to convince most of the armed groups in the country to lay down their weapons.
The GSPC, however, refused to do so and Droukdel decided to approach Al-Qaeda.
There was no reaction from Algerian authorities yet on the killing of Droukdel.
Sources in Paris tell The Arab Weekly that France has approached Algeria several times in the past about taking part in anti-terrorism operations on its southern borders.
In recent weeks, Algeria’s President has submitted for public comment a constitutional amendment draft allowing the Algerian army to undertake operations abroad. Approval of the amendment would constitute a major shift in Algeria’s military doctrine which prohibits armed intervention outside the country’s borders.
AQIM emerged from a group started in the late 1990s by radical Algerian Islamists, who in 2007 pledged allegiance to Osama Bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda network.
There was no immediate confirmation of Droukdel’s death from al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, known as AQIM, which has made millions of dollars abducting foreigners for ransom over the years and made large swaths of West Africa too dangerous for aid groups to access.
The group has claimed responsibility for a string of attacks on troops and civilians across the Sahel, including a 2016 attack on an upmarket hotel and restaurant in Burkina Faso, which killed 30 people, mainly Westerners.
Droukdel’s reported death comes after French President Emmanuel Macron and the leaders of the G5 Sahel group — Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Chad — launched a new plan in January to fight jihadists in the area. France deployed 600 additional soldiers to its Barkhane force, raising the number of troops there to 5,100.
Northern Mali is the site of frequent clashes between rival armed groups, as well as a haven for jihadist activity.
In 2012, key cities fell under the control of jihadist groups linked to Al-Qaeda, who exploited a Tuareg-led rebel uprising led by pro-Gadhafi Turaeg fighters who fled Libya in the wake of the NATO-led campaign which toppled the Libyan leader in 2011.
Tuareg activities led to a French-led military intervention in 2013.
According to the UN, Droukdel was an explosives expert and manufactured devices that killed hundreds of civilians in attacks on public places.
He was sentenced to death in Algeria in 2013 for his involvement in the bombings of a government building and offices of the UN’s refugee committee in Algiers that killed 26 people and wounded 177.
The US said it had provided intelligence to help track down Droukdel.
The US military took part of the credit for the operation. “US Africa Command was able to assist with intelligence and… support to fix the target,” spokesman Colonel Chris Karns told CNN on Friday.
There was no word on any role by Algerian intelligence services known for following closely the activities of Jihadists on the country’s border.
France also claimed on Friday to have captured a leader of the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (EIGS) group, which carries out frequent attacks over Niger’s western borders.
“On May 19, French forces captured Mohamed el Mrabat, veteran jihadist in the Sahel region and an important cadre in EIGS”, Parly said on Twitter.
Operations against EIGS “the other big terrorist threat in the region” are continuing, said Parly.
Mali is struggling to contain the activities of armed Islamic extremists, which has claimed thousands of military and civilian lives since.
Despite the presence of thousands of French and UN troops, the conflict has engulfed the centre of the country and spread to neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger.
Some 500 jihadist fighters are said to have been killed or captured by French troops in the region in recent months, among them several leading figures including commanders and recruiters.
But Droukdel’s death is a symbolic coup for the French, a military source said.
He had remained a threat in the region, capable of financing jihadist movements, even though his leadership had been contested, the source added.
His death, and that of other Al Qaeda figures, could leave the group disorganised in the Sahel.
But the threat of extremist groups continues to alarm countries of the region. Mauritania’s foreign minister said Friday the five-nation African force fighting terrorism in the Sahel is facing a growing security menace sweeping the region that is not only local but a global problem that demands an international response.
Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, whose country holds the presidency of the G5 Sahel force, told the UN Security Council the security situation “is deteriorating visibly and with rare constancy” as a result of a “diabolical alliance of terrorist and drug trafficking groups,” with violence spreading every day to new territories.
