Feared Al-Qaeda commander Abou Zeid killed by French forces in Mali mountains

A prominent Al-Qaeda leader has been killed by French and Chadian troops in northern Mali, the President of Chad confirmed yesterday.
Abdelhamid Abou Zeid, senior commander in Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), was killed among 40 other Islamist fighters three days ago in the foothills of the Adrar des Ifoghas mountains.
A U.S. official said the reports of Abou Zeid's death appear credible and that Washington would view his death as a serious blow to Al-Qaeda's north Africa wing.

Serious blow: Abou Zeid, one of the leaders of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), was killed by French and Chadian troops in the mountains in northern Mali

Speaking on Friday, Chadian President Idriss Deby said his forces 'killed two jihadi leaders, including Abou Zeid,' but did not give any further details.
Algerian national Abdelhamid Abou Zeid, whose real name was Mohamed Ghadir, was one of the top three commanders in AQIM.

The former smuggler turned jihadist is believed to be behind the kidnapping of more than 20 Westerners in the area over the last five years, and is thought have executed British national Edwin Dyer in 2009.
French and Chadian troops have been hunting AQIM fighters in the mountains on the border to Algeria after a lightning campaign to dislodge them from northern Mali. 
France's Elysee presidential palace has declined to comment on the AQIM leader, but a French army official confirmed that about 40 Islamists had been killed in heavy fighting over the last week in the mountainous Tigargara region.

Fatal battle: A U.S. Official said the reports than Abou Zeid has been taken down by French and Chadian troops, pictured, was credible

Alleged murder: Abou Zeid is said to have been the one to execute British hostage Edwin Dyer in 2009

The official said 1,200 French troops, 800 Chadian soldiers and some elements of the Malian army were still in combat to the south of Tessalit in the Adrar mountain range.
Ten logistics sites and an explosives factory had been destroyed in the operation as well as 16 vehicles, she said.
France launched the assault to retake Mali's vast desert north from AQIM and other Islamist rebels after a plea from Mali's government to halt the militants' drive southward.
The intervention swiftly dislodged rebels from northern Mali's main towns and drove them back into the surrounding desert and mountains, particularly the Adrar des Ifoghas.
After a loose alliance of Islamist groups seized northern Mali from April last year, Abou Zeid took control of the ancient desert trading town of Timbuktu, employing a violently extreme form of sharia, including amputations and the destruction of ancient Sufi shrines.

Confirmed: Abou Zeid was among 40 militants killed three days ago in the foothills of the Adrar des Ifoghas mountains, pictured, the president of Chad said

Timbuktu elders who dealt directly with him during the Islamist occupation described a short man with a grey beard and a quiet, severe manner who was never seen without an AK-47 rifle.
Locals said that when he fled Timbuktu, before the town fell to the French-led military advance, he took several blindfolded Western hostages in his convoy.
Born in 1965 in the Debdab region of Algeria's Illizi province, close to the Libyan border, Abou Zeid joined the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) during the 1990s civil war, which later transformed itself into AQIM.
Abou Zeid is regarded by some as one of AQIM's radicals, unwilling to negotiate or make concessions.
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.
Abou Zeid is reported to have a strong rivalry with Mokhtar Belmokhtar, the mastermind of the mass hostage taking at the In Amenas gas plant in Algeria last month, due to the latter's decision to found his own brigade last year.

DAILYMAIL