Neo-colonial Libyan Regime Claims Algeria Guerrilla Leader Belmokhtar Killed in US 'Counter-terrorism Strike'
Agencies in Washington
Sunday 14 June 2015 20.21 EDT
Libya’s imperialist-recognised regime said last night that the militant Mokhtar Belmokhtar, charged by the US with leading the deadly attack on a gas plant in Algeria in 2013, has been killed in an American air strike.
“The Libyan government in the east of Libya confirms that the US fighter jets conducted air strikes last night in a mission which resulted in the death of the terrorist Belmokhtar,” a spokesman said.
Earlier, the Department of Defense said the US military conducted a counter-terrorism strike against an al-Qaida-associated target in Libya on Saturday night, but were assessing results before providing more details.
Unnamed American officials confirmed that Belmokhtar was the target of the strike by at least one American warplane, the New York Times reported, but they expressed caution about his fate.
Pentagon spokeswoman Eileen Lainez said she did not immediately have more information on the target of the strike.
There were reports that hours after the air strike, a convoy of armed pickup trucks carrying wounded from the bombing arrived at Ajdabiya’s hospital, running into a firefight with regular army forces.
Several militants were killed and wounded, and local sources say they retreated into the desert.
The bombing came as US officials were calling for a cessation of hostilities in Libya’s civil war, as Washington urges Libya’s rival regimes to agree a UN-crafted peace plan by June 17, just before the onset of Ramadan.
The air strike came on the same day that Islamic State forces were pushed out of most of Derna, one of two Libyan towns they hold, by rival Islamists backed by regime air strikes.
The US raid is the first American air strike since the 2011 NATO-led air campaign against Muammar Gaddafi during Libya’s counter-revolution.
But US forces have conducted more recent operations in Libya. Two years ago Delta commandos captured Anas al Libi, blamed for the bombing of US embassies in Africa, from his home in Tripoli. Last June another commando raid seized Ahmed Al Khattala, currently on trial in the US on charges of killing US ambassador Chris Stevens in Benghazi in 2012.
Since the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Pentagon and NATO war of regime-change against Gaddafi's government in 2011 and Libya’s subsequent slide into chaos, the North African state has seen the rise of Islamist militant groups taking advantage of the turmoil. Some are allied with al-Qaida’s leadership, others have declared allegiance to Islamic State, which has been gaining ground.
Belmokhtar has been reported killed several times, including in 2013 when he was believed to have been killed in Mali. He has earned a reputation as one of the most elusive jihadi leaders in the region.
If confirmed, the death of Belmokhtar – who was blamed for orchestrating the attack on Algeria’s In Amenas gasfield that killed 38 hostages, and nicknamed “Uncatchable” by French forces – would be a major strike against al-Qaida allied operations in the region.
Belmokhtar, a one-eyed veteran of Afghanistan and Algeria’s own 1990s Islamist war, was long a major figure in Saharan smuggling, hostage-taking, arms trafficking and insurgencies, including the conflict in Mali.
Libyan military sources said that an air strike had been carried on Saturday in Ajdabiya city near Benghazi, killing seven members of the Ansar al-Sharia militant group.
Sunday 14 June 2015 20.21 EDT
Libya’s imperialist-recognised regime said last night that the militant Mokhtar Belmokhtar, charged by the US with leading the deadly attack on a gas plant in Algeria in 2013, has been killed in an American air strike.
“The Libyan government in the east of Libya confirms that the US fighter jets conducted air strikes last night in a mission which resulted in the death of the terrorist Belmokhtar,” a spokesman said.
Earlier, the Department of Defense said the US military conducted a counter-terrorism strike against an al-Qaida-associated target in Libya on Saturday night, but were assessing results before providing more details.
Unnamed American officials confirmed that Belmokhtar was the target of the strike by at least one American warplane, the New York Times reported, but they expressed caution about his fate.
Pentagon spokeswoman Eileen Lainez said she did not immediately have more information on the target of the strike.
There were reports that hours after the air strike, a convoy of armed pickup trucks carrying wounded from the bombing arrived at Ajdabiya’s hospital, running into a firefight with regular army forces.
Several militants were killed and wounded, and local sources say they retreated into the desert.
The bombing came as US officials were calling for a cessation of hostilities in Libya’s civil war, as Washington urges Libya’s rival regimes to agree a UN-crafted peace plan by June 17, just before the onset of Ramadan.
The air strike came on the same day that Islamic State forces were pushed out of most of Derna, one of two Libyan towns they hold, by rival Islamists backed by regime air strikes.
The US raid is the first American air strike since the 2011 NATO-led air campaign against Muammar Gaddafi during Libya’s counter-revolution.
But US forces have conducted more recent operations in Libya. Two years ago Delta commandos captured Anas al Libi, blamed for the bombing of US embassies in Africa, from his home in Tripoli. Last June another commando raid seized Ahmed Al Khattala, currently on trial in the US on charges of killing US ambassador Chris Stevens in Benghazi in 2012.
Since the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Pentagon and NATO war of regime-change against Gaddafi's government in 2011 and Libya’s subsequent slide into chaos, the North African state has seen the rise of Islamist militant groups taking advantage of the turmoil. Some are allied with al-Qaida’s leadership, others have declared allegiance to Islamic State, which has been gaining ground.
Belmokhtar has been reported killed several times, including in 2013 when he was believed to have been killed in Mali. He has earned a reputation as one of the most elusive jihadi leaders in the region.
If confirmed, the death of Belmokhtar – who was blamed for orchestrating the attack on Algeria’s In Amenas gasfield that killed 38 hostages, and nicknamed “Uncatchable” by French forces – would be a major strike against al-Qaida allied operations in the region.
Belmokhtar, a one-eyed veteran of Afghanistan and Algeria’s own 1990s Islamist war, was long a major figure in Saharan smuggling, hostage-taking, arms trafficking and insurgencies, including the conflict in Mali.
Libyan military sources said that an air strike had been carried on Saturday in Ajdabiya city near Benghazi, killing seven members of the Ansar al-Sharia militant group.
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