'One-eyed' militant hit, Libya says

Elusive Islamist mastermind was reported killed several times before

A veteran Islamist militant blamed for a deadly attack on an Algerian gas field and accused of running arms smuggling routes across North Africa was hit in a US airstrike in Libya, according to the Libyan government.

The government said on Sunday that the strike had killed Mokhtar Belmokhtar, an Algerian militant who became a major figure in insurgencies across North Africa and the Saharan border region and was dubbed "The Uncatchable" by the French military.

Pentagon spokesman Colonel Steve Warren said the military believes the Saturday night strike was successful and hit the target, which was Belmokhtar, but did not confirm he was killed. Neither US officials nor the Libyan government provided proof of Belmokhtar's death, which likely requires a DNA test or an announcement by Belmokhtar's group.

Belmokhtar has a long history of leading terrorist activities as a member of al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb and is the operational leader of the al-Qaida-associated al-Murabitun organization in northwest Africa, Warren said on Sunday.

Libya's internationally recognized government said the US strike had killed Belmokhtar at a gathering with other militant leaders, whom it did not name.

No further details about the area of the strike were provided, but Libyan military sources said an airstrike on a farmhouse on Saturday in Ajdabiya city near Benghazi had killed seven members of the Ansar al Sharia militant group who had been meeting there.

Belmokhtar earned a reputation as one of the most elusive jihadi leaders in the region. He has been reported killed several times, including in 2013 when he was believed to have died in fighting in Mali.

If confirmed, the death of Belmokhtar - who was blamed for orchestrating the 2013 attack on Algeria's In Amenas gas field in which 40 oil workers died - would be a major strike against al-Qaida-tied groups in the region.

The one-eyed veteran of Afghanistan and Algeria's own 1990s Islamist war had long been a major figure in Saharan smuggling, hostage-taking, arms trafficking and insurgencies, including the conflict in Mali.

Linked to a string of kidnappings of foreigners in North Africa in the past decade, Belmokhtar, who was born in Algeria in 1972, earned a reputation as one of the most important "gangster jihadists" of the Sahara.

He also gained prominence as a supplier of arms to Islamist groups and as a trafficker of cigarettes, which gained him the nickname "Mr Marlboro" among the local population in the Sahara.

Since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 and Libya's slide into chaos and fighting between two rival governments, the North African state has seen the rise of Islamist militant groups, which have taken advantage of the turmoil.

Some are allied with al-Qaida's leadership; others have local loyalties and some have recently declared allegiance to Islamic State, which has been gaining ground.

Reuters - AP