U.S. warplanes successfully targeted former al-Qaida leader Mokhtar Belmokhtar over the weekend, a Defense Department official said, and reportedly killed the one-eyed mastermind behind the 2013 seizure of an Algerian oil facility that lead to the death of three Americans.
The Pentagon issued a statement Sunday afternoon claiming it had carried out an airstrike in Libya but declined to offer further details. It later confirmed the target was Belmokhtar, an established leader of the terrorist network’s North African affiliate al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb who later headed a number of offshoot extremist groups. Two F-15 Strike Eagles dropped several 500-pound bombs on the target.
Belmokhtar maintains a personal allegiance to al-Qaida and continues to pose a threat to U.S. citizens, Pentagon spokesman Army Col. Steven Warren said. That allegiance to al-Qaida — despite defense assertions he broke away from the extremist network — grants the U.S. the legal authority to kill him under the post Sept. 11, 2001, authorizations for using military force. Warren cited Belmokhtar’s involvement in the Jan. 16, 2013, attack on the In-Amenas oil plant in Algeria, which resulted in a four-day hostage standoff and the deaths of 38 people from 10 countries.
The Pentagon is still working to confirm the results of the strike, but believes this will weaken Islamic extremism in the region.
“Any time a leadership figure is removed, it certainly impacts the organization. In this case, [Belmokhtar] had split away from al-Qaida and formed his own cell,” Warren said. “While he was with that cell he conducted these terrorist attacks in Algeria, killing 38 innocent civilians including three Americans. So certainly that subordinate terrorist organization would be impacted if their leadership were removed from the battlefield.”
READ: [Mokhtar Belmokhtar Targeted in Libya, Fate Unclear]
A Libyan Islamist with ties to militants there, however, claims the U.S. bombs missed Belmokhtar, and instead killed four other fighters supposedly linked to the 2012 assault on a U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi that killed U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans. When asked, Warren would not confirm these reports, but said the U.S. targeted Belmokhtar specifically.
It wouldn’t be the first time Belmokhtar was reportedly killed. In 2013, Chadian state television reported its forces killed the militant leader while operating in Mali. The report was widely disseminated, before it was ultimately confirmed he remained alive.
Belmokhtar, 43, rose to international prominence in 2012 when he urged so-called jihadis to travel to Mali in anticipation of the French intervention against Islamic extremists there. He vowed that he would oversee the expansion of conflict into Western countries.
Analysts believed Belmokhtar’s following had fractured this past May, when he had to deny claims his menacingly titled organization Those Who Sign With Blood, or al-Muwaqi’un Bil-Dima, had pledged its allegiance to the Islamic State group. Belmokhtar was also a senior leader of the al-Qaida offshoot Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa, or MUJAO, and the al-Mulathamin Brigade.
The U.S. since offered a reward for up to $5 million for information about Belmokhtar’s whereabouts. The hardened former Algerian soldier trained and operated in Afghanistan in the late 1980s and early 1990s, where he reportedly lost an eye mishandling explosives. He was first designated as a foreign terrorist by the U.S. Treasury Department in 2003, and was charged by the FBI in 2013 for his role in the oil facility attack.
“The charges against Mokhtar Belmokhtar describe a fanatical jihadist leading an extremist vanguard of an extremist ideology,” FBI Assistant Director in Charge George Venizelos said at the time. “As alleged, he kidnapped diplomats, formed his own terrorist organization that pledged fealty to al Qaeda, and masterminded the murderous siege of a civilian plant in Algeria that resulted in the deaths of dozens of hostages, including three Americans.
“Belmokhtar, in furtherance of his ’cause,’ has shown a commitment to kidnapping and murdering Western diplomats and other civilians. The cause of justice will be served by his apprehension and prosecution.”
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U.S. Claims Warplanes Killed Elusive One-Eyed Algerian al-Qaida Leader Mokhtar Belmokhtar originally appeared on usnews.com
