Mokhtar Belmokhtar

Al-Qaeda in North Africa has denied reports its former leader Mokhtar Belmokhtar was killed in a US air strike last week in Libya, in a statement posted online overnight.
 
"The mujahid Khaled Abu al-Abbas is still alive and well," said the statement from Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, using the name by which Belmokhtar is widely known in jihadist circles.
 

An air raid carried out by the US Air Force resulted in the death of an al-Qaeda member in Libya. The operation took place on Saturday and did not involve ground forces, while the country’s legal government had been informed according to protocol.

Notorious Algerian jihadist Mokhtar Belmokhtar has been killed in a US airstrike in Libya, the strife-torn country's internationally recognised government said in a statement June 14.

Police in Mali March 8 hunted for the killers of two Europeans and three Malians in a jihadist attack on a nightclub, as a deadly assault on a UN barracks in the north heightened security concerns.