[MAGHAREBIA] A terrorist with an international bounty on his head was among the al-Qaeda gunnies killed last week by French Oumar Ould Hamaha, the front man for the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO
...Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa, another offshoot of Qaeda in North Africa. Currently active in Mali and southern Algeria, the idea is to do as much good in West Africa as AQIM has done in North Africa...
) and a former lieutenant to terrorist Mokhtar Belmokhtar, was killed "with weapons in hand", a regional security source confirmed.
Reaper drones, along with Chad-based Mirage 2000 fighters and Tiger helicopters from Mali "made it possible to neutralise" at least 10 Death Eaters in the March 4th operation, French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told Le Figaro last week.
The AQIM fighters were spotted in the Amettetai Valley, in the Kidal region, by French forces operating the drones, Drian said.
Ould Hamaha, nicknamed "Red Beard" because he regularly died his facial hair with henna, was implicated in the April 2012 abduction of Algerian diplomats in Gao.