Mokhtar Belmokhtar

Mokhtar Belmokhtar (مختار بلمختار; 1 June 1972 – November 2016), also known as Khalid Abu al-Abbas, The One-Eyed, Nelson, and The Uncatchable, was an Algerian leader of the group Al-Murabitoun, former military commander of Al-Qaeda in the Maghreb, smuggler and weapons dealer.

Mokhtar Belmokhtar was born in Ghardaïa, Algeria, on 1 June 1972 to a father named "Mohamed" and a mother named "Zohra Chemkha".

He married four local Berber and Tuareg women from prominent families in northern Mali, cementing his ties in the region.

He named a son Osama, after Bin Laden.

Omar Ould Hamaha, his uncle by marriage, was the commander of a smaller AQIM offshoot.

Belmokhtar lost his left eye in the 1990s while mishandling explosives.

He wore a false eye in its place after that.

However, as the GIA began to splinter and fall apart in the late 1990s, Belmokhtar left the organization.

Born in northern Algeria, Belmokhtar traveled to Afghanistan in 1991 to fight with the mujahadeen against the pro-Soviet government following the withdrawal of Soviet Union troops.

There, he lost his left eye while mishandling explosives.

He later joined the Islamist GIA fighting in the Algerian Civil War and following that became a commander in the Mali-based Islamist Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).

In 1991, at the age of 19, he traveled to Afghanistan and Pakistan to fight with the mujahadeen against the Afghan Communist government in the Civil War in Afghanistan.

He trained in al-Qaeda's Afghan camps at Khalden and Jalalabad.

He returned in 1993 to his native Algeria.

There, he joined the Armed Islamic Group of Algeria (GIA), an extremist Islamist organisation dedicated to overthrowing the Algerian government and replacing it with an Islamic state.

He fought in the long and bloody Algerian Civil War to overthrow the Algerian government.

The GIA massacred civilians, sometimes wiping out entire villages.

Belmokhtar's fierce reputation earned him prestige with the GIA, and he quickly rose to the rank of commander.

In 1998, Belmokhtar joined a new splinter group, the militant Algeria-based Islamist Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), later known as Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).

Its goal was to overthrow the Algerian government and institute an Islamic state, and its members carried out suicide bombings against Algerian government targets.

Soon, he became an effective GSPC field commander.

He went to Tamanrasset, Algeria, to raise money for jihad.

He gradually established an elaborate smuggling network in the ninth region, covering southern Algeria where many of the most profitable smuggling routes exist.

He smuggled cigarettes, drugs, stolen cars, diamonds, and people, using the money to buy weapons to supply insurgent groups.

He also kidnapped for ransom dozens of Westerners, including diplomats, aid workers, doctors, and tourists from France, Germany, Austria, United Kingdom, Spain, Switzerland, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Canada.

The kidnappings are believed to have netted him what the US State Department estimated as $50 million in ransoms for the Europeans.

The global intelligence company Stratfor reported that Belmokhtar commanded an estimated $3 million per European captive.

In 2003, for example, he is believed to have received $6.5 million in ransom money for the return of 32 tourists taken captive in the Sahara Desert.

In 2003, the U.S. military had Belmokhtar under surveillance in the desert in northern Mali.

In 2004, he was sentenced to life imprisonment in Algeria for terrorist activities.

He was twice convicted and sentenced to death in absentia under separate charges in Algerian courts: in 2007 for terrorism and in 2008 for murder.

In December 2012, Belmokhtar announced he was leaving AQIM and headed his own organization, dubbed the Al-Mulathameen ("Masked") Brigade (also known as the al-Mua'qi'oon Biddam ("Those who Sign with Blood" Brigade). In January 2013, the Brigade took more than 800 people hostage at the Tigantourine gas facility in Algeria. 39 hostages were executed and one Algerian killed before the facility was recaptured by Algerian forces, who killed 29 members of the Brigade. The Brigade was listed by the US State Department as a Foreign Terrorist Organization in December 2013.

On 2 March 2013, the Chadian state television and the Chadian Army reported that Belmokhtar had been killed in a raid by Chadian troops against a terrorist base in Mali.

However, two months later, Belmokhtar claimed responsibility for two suicide truck bomb attacks – on a French-owned uranium mine in Arlit, Niger, and a military base 150 miles away in Agadez.

On 14 June 2015, Libya's government announced that Belmokhtar was killed in a U.S. airstrike inside Libya.

U.S. officials confirmed the airstrike and that Belmokhtar was a target, but were unable to confirm that Belmokhtar was killed.

In October 2015, Al-Qaeda spokesman, Hassan Abderraouf announced that Mokhtar was killed, but did not reveal when.

Belmokhtar became interested in jihad as a schoolboy.

In November 2016, Belmokhtar was targeted again in a French airstrike, conducted by French aircraft in southern Libya, based on intelligence from the United States.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence confirmed years later on their website that Belmokhtar was indeed killed in 2016.