Algerian Army Kills Militant Leader Linked to Beheading of French Hostage
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Version 0 of 1. ALGIERS, Algeria — The leader of a militant group responsible for beheading a French hostage three months ago was reportedly killed Tuesday along with two associates in an ambush by the Algerian Army. The leader, Abdelmalek Gouri, also known as Khaled Abu-Selmane, was killed in the Boumerdès region, about 50 miles east of the capital, Algiers, the local news media reported. The Defense Ministry confirmed the death of “the dangerous murderer Gouri” in a statement carried by the government news agency, the Algeria Press Service. Mr. Gouri led Jund al-Khilafah, or Soldiers of the Caliphate, which released a video in September of the beheading of Hervé Gourdel, a 55-year-old mountaineering guide from Nice. The group said the killing was meant to punish France for its actions against the Islamic State in Iraq. The execution was the first operation by the group after it broke away from Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, the main affiliate of Al Qaeda in the region, amid heated debates about pledging allegiance to the Islamic State. Mr. Gouri was born in 1977 and raised in the region where he was eventually killed. He joined the jihadist groups based in that area in the early 2000s as the Algerian civil war was ending, then worked his way up in the ranks. He led several deadly operations against the Algerian security forces, mainly from 2007 to 2011, and he was reportedly in charge of recruitment for the Islamic State. The Algerian Army had been tracking Mr. Gouri’s group for three months. With his death, it is not clear what will become of his group. According to several sources, it included fewer than 30 fighters and never had enough time to structure itself as a viable force on the field. |