CHAD SAYS KEY AL-QAEDA COMMANDER DEAD
“It was Chadian forces who killed two militant leaders, including Abou Zeid,” Deby told opposition politicians in the presence of journalists after a funeral ceremony for Chadian soldiers killed in fighting at the weekend.
Chadian soldiers with support from French special forces and fighter jets are hunting down pockets of Al-Qaeda-linked insurgents in the border region with Algeria after a seven-week French-led campaign broke Islamist domination of northern Mali, according to a report from The Daily Star monitored by Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)
Sources close to Islamist militants and tribal elders had earlier said Abou Zeid, blamed for kidnapping at least 20 Westerners in the Sahara, was among 40 militants killed within the past few days in the foothills of the Adrar des Ifoghas Mountains.
Algeria’s Ennahar television, which is well connected with Algerian security services, reported his death Thursday but there was no official confirmation.
A former smuggler turned jihadist, Algerian-born Abou Zeid is regarded as one of the most ruthless operators of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. He is believed to have executed British hostage Edwin Dyer in 2009 and 78-year-old Frenchman Michel Germaneau in 2010.
A trusted lieutenant of AQIM’s leader Abdel-Malek Droukdel, Abou Zeid imposed a violent form of Shariah law during Islamist domination of the ancient desert town of Timbuktu.
Members of the MNLA Tuareg rebel group, who have been acting as scouts for French and Chadian forces, said Islamist prisoners seized during the fighting confirmed Abou Zeid and another militant leader had been killed.
However, French government spokeswoman Najat Vallaud-Belkacem said she could neither confirm nor deny the report. An official MNLA spokesman said the group had no evidence to prove he was dead.
French radio RFI and Algerian daily El Khabar reported that DNA tests were being conducted on members of Abou Zeid’s family to confirm whether a body recovered by French troops after fighting in Adrar des Ifoghas was indeed the Islamist leader.
In a speech Friday, French President Francois Hollande said the operation was in its final stage and he was not obliged to confirm Abou Zeid’s death.
“The militant groups have taken refuge and are hiding in an especially difficult zone,” he said. “Information is out there. I don’t have to confirm it because we must reach the end of the operation.”
A U.S. official and a Western diplomat said the reports appeared credible.
According to local sources in the northern Malian town of Kidal, MNLA Tuareg rebels had located Abou Zeid’s fighters and handed over the coordinates for French jets to strike.
“They were hidden in mountain caves and were building bombs for suicide attacks when they were killed,” said Ibrahim Oumar Toure, a mechanic in Kidal who worked with Islamist rebels and remains in contact with them. (T/P07/E1)
Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)
