French forces in Mali have killed Abdelhamid Abu Zeid, a leading field commander of al Qaeda's north Africa wing AQIM.
The
station said 40 militants including Abu Zeid were killed in the region
of Tigargara in northern Mali three days ago. A French Defence Ministry
official declined to comment on the report. Algeria did not confirm the
killing.
France launched a whirlwind assault to retake Mali's vast
northern desert region from AQIM and other Islamist rebels on January
11 after a plea from Mali's caretaker government. The military
intervention dislodged the rebels from several main towns they had
occupied and drove them back into desert wilds.
AQIM, which stands
for Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, has earned tens of millions of
dollars in ransom payments for Western hostages taken to its strongholds
in northern Mali.
Abu Zeid has been regarded as one of AQIM's
most ruthless operators. He is believed to have executed British
national Edwin Dyer in 2009 and a 78-year-old Frenchman, Michel
Germaneau, in 2010.
Canadian diplomat Robert Fowler, in an account
of his kidnapping by another Islamist cell in the Sahara, recounted how
Abou Zeid refused to give medication to two hostages suffering from
dysentery, one of whom had been stung by a scorpion. - Reuters.
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