KATHMANDU: The leader of al-Qaeda in north Africa, Abdelmalek Droukdel, has been killed in an operation in Mali, BBC reported.
Defense Minister Florence Parly said Droukdel along with members of his inner circle had been killed in the north of the country on Wednesday.
Earlier in May, French forces had also captured a senior Islamic State group commander in Mali in an operation, she claimed.
The “daring operations” had dealt “severe blows to the terrorist groups and it would continue to hunt them down,” she said.
As head of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), Droukdel was in charge of all affiliates in north Africa and also commanded al-Qaeda’s Sahel affiliate, Jamaat Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM).
The captured Islamic State group commander, Mohamed Mrabat, was a veteran jihadist and had a senior role in the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS) group, Parly said. He was caught on 19 May, she added.
Aged in his late 40s, Droukdel fought against Soviet troops in Afghanistan, and was thought to regard the former leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, as his inspiration.
Under his leadership AQIM carried out numerous deadly attacks, including a 2016 assault on a hotel in the Burkina Faso capital Ouagadougou that left 30 dead and 150 injured.
In 2012 he was sentenced to death by a court in Algeria after being convicted in absentia of murder, membership of a terrorist organization and attacks using explosives.
(With inputs from Agencies)
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