Mali: More Weight to Reports of Militant’s Death

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/05/world/africa/mali-more-weight-to-reports-of-militants-death.html

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On Monday, there were further indications that Abdelhamid Abu Zeid, a leader of Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, had been killed last week in northern Mali, in the Adrar des Ifoghas mountains, where French and Chadian troops were hunting down Islamist fighters. A Mauritanian news Web site, Sahara Media, which has close contacts with Abu Zeid’s group, cited an Islamist source as confirming that he had been killed in a French airstrike. But the same unnamed Islamist source denied reports of the death of Mokhtar Belmokhtar, another militant leader, who Chad’s military said had been killed by its soldiers in Mali last week. The source claimed that Mr. Belmokhtar was alive and operating to the southwest, close to the Malian town of Gao. France’s chief of the defense staff, Adm. Édouard Guillaud, told Europe 1 radio Monday morning that it was probable that Abu Zeid had been killed. “It is likely, but only likely,” he said. “We don’t have any certainty for the moment. It would be good news.” Abu Zeid is said to have abducted more than 20 Western hostages since 2008 for ransom, some of which went to Al Qaeda. He is believed to have killed a British hostage, Edwin Dyer, in 2009, and a 78-year-old Frenchman, Michel Germaneau, in 2010.