France Says Troops Killed Qaeda Commander in Mali
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Version 0 of 1. On Nov. 2, 2013, two French journalists were grabbed in the troubled northern Malian town of Kidal. Hours later, their bodies were found on a dirt track, lying near their kidnapper’s car, which had a broken steering wheel. Investigators later determined that the journalists had been abducted by gunmen loyal to Al Qaeda’s regional branch, a group that has financed itself by kidnapping Europeans for ransom. But this time, when the car broke down, the gunmen called their commander, who allegedly ordered that the journalists — Ghislaine Dupont, 57, Radio France Internationale’s senior correspondent, and her sound technician, Claude Verlon, 55 — be killed, according to a senior Malian intelligence official. On Wednesday, France’s Ministry of Defense confirmed that French troops had killed the man believed to have been that commander: Abdelkarim al-Targui, of Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. “In the night of May 17 to 18, French special forces carried out an operation in northern Mali. Four terrorists were killed during the ensuing combat. Among them was Amada Ag Hama, who used the alias ‘Abdelkarim the Tuareg,’ ” the ministry’s statement said, using an alternative spelling of Targui. The journalists’ killings shocked France as severely as the journalist James Foley’s beheading last summer shocked the American public, so Mr. Targui’s death is symbolic for France, one of the most prolific payers of ransoms to Al Qaeda. For years, a crisis unit in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Paris tried to negotiate the release of at least three other French citizens held by Mr. Targui’s platoon, or by brigades to which he was subordinate in northern Mali. He proved to be one of the most intransigent of Al Qaeda’s regional leaders, most of whom approached kidnapping strictly as a business, making sure to take good care of hostages in order to trade them for suitcases of cash. By contrast, two of the three French citizens known to have been held by Mr. Targui’s brigade were killed — one in retaliation for a French-led airstrike and the other for trying to escape — suggesting a harder hand than most of his terrorist colleagues in the Sahara. In addition to Ms. Dupont and Mr. Verlon, Mr. Targui’s unit was involved in the kidnapping of Serge Lazarevic and Philippe Verdon, French citizens who had traveled to Mali to do a feasibility study for a new mine. They were grabbed from their hotel rooms in late 2011. According to a senior negotiator, who requested anonymity to speak on a delicate subject, Mr. Verdon was killed by Mr. Targui’s men in 2013 after trying to use a mirror to signal to a French aircraft overhead. Mr. Lazarevic was freed last Dec. 9 after the release of several Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb prisoners in Mali, according to a statement by Mali’s justice minister. Experts tracking the terrorist group suspect that France paid a ransom, but the amount remains unknown. Another hostage, Michel Germaneau, 78, a French engineer, was kidnapped in Niger in 2010 and killed three months later in revenge for a French military raid on the group. Mr. Germaneau was under the control of a different commander, Abou Zeid, but reports have emerged that Mr. Targui was among the foot soldiers assigned to watch over the hostage, and some negotiators believe Mr. Germaneau was killed by Mr. Targui. “He was a big fish,” said an elected official from Kidal, who requested anonymity to discuss an intelligence matter. “He was at the foundation of everything. It’s he who took Lazarevic, and Verdon and Germaneau. It was always him in the background. This is a big strike against the group. They are paying a big price.” |