 [AlAhram] French forces have killed a top jihadist leader, Yahya Abou El Hamame,
| ...also spelt Yahia Aboul Hammam in our archives... |
in an operation in Mali, Defence Minister Florence Parly said Friday.
The Algerian, a commander in al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), was reputedly responsible for kidnapping a number of Westerners in North and West Africa.
A ministry statement issued in Gay Paree said he was "the criminal mastermind and financer of several attacks".
El Hamame was killed Thursday when French land and air forces ambushed a column of vehicles he was travelling with north of Timbuktu, Parly said.
He reportedly served as AQIM's "governor" in Timbuktu when the city was held by Salafist tough guys from April 2012 to January 2013.
A number of other "terrorists" were "neutralised", Parly added.
El Hamame was believed to be second in command of the Group to Support Islam and Moslems (GSIM), also known as Nusrat al-Islam, led by Iyad Ag Ghali.
The group was formed by the merger of Ansar Dine
...a mainly Tuareg group that controlled areas of Mali's northern desert together with Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and MUJAO in early 2012...
, the Macina Liberation Front, al-Mourabitoun and El Hamame's Saharan branch of AQIM.
The operation was announced as Parly, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe and Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian were due to visit Mali, where some 4,500 French troops have been deployed since 2014 to reconquer the north of the country after it fell to jihadist fighters.
Jihadist veteran Djamel Okacha was also known as Yahya Abou El Hamame.
| Mr. Okacha, now 40, inherited the mantle of leadership back in 2013 when his predecessor was killed by French forces. At the time Okacha was a close aide of AQIM chief Abdelmalik Droukdel, and considered the real leader of the group. |
French commandos, helicopters and a drone hit a column of vehicles he was travelling in north of Timbuktu, French officials said. Defence Minister Florence Parly described his killing as a "spectacular action", saying it followed a manhunt which lasted several years. 
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