MIDDLE EAST

U.S. Airstrike in Libya Targets Al Qaeda Leader

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WASHINGTON — The United States carried out an airstrike in Libya early Sunday against the mastermind of the 2013 terrorist seizure of an Algerian gas plant that left 38 foreign hostages dead, American and Libyan officials said on Sunday.
The Libyan government said in a statement Sunday night that the airstrikes killed the terrorist leader, Mokhtar Belmokhtar, and “a number” of other Libyan terrorists in the eastern part of the country.
“The Libyan government announces that American planes undertook action that resulted in the death of the wanted terrorist Mokhtar Belmokhtar and a number of Libyans belonging to one of the terrorist groups in Eastern Libya, after consultation with the Libyan interim government to take action on terrorist leadership present on Libyan soil,” according to a statement released by the government.
American officials confirmed that Mr. Belmokhtar was the target of the strike by at least one American warplane, but they expressed caution about his fate, saying that they needed forensic proof to declare with certainty Mr. Belmokhtar’s death. That could take some time unless terrorist websites issue a statement of mourning.
An undated image of Mokhtar Belmokhtar, an Algerian militant leader reported to have been killed in an American airstrike.via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images 
“The U.S. military conducted a counterterrorism strike against an Al Qaeda-associated terrorist in Libya,” said Col. Steven H. Warren, a Pentagon spokesman. “We are assessing the results of the operation and will provide additional information as and when appropriate.”
If confirmed, the death of Mr. Belmokhtar would represent a major counterterrorism victory for the United States against one of the world’s most wanted militants.
Mr. Belmokhtar has long been a notorious figure in the Sahel region of Africa — a vast area on the southern flank of the Sahara that stretches from Senegal to Chad — and appears to have become more dangerous even as his ties to Al Qaeda seemed to become more tenuous. Known as Laaouar, or the one-eyed, after losing an eye to shrapnel, Mr. Belmokhtar fought against a Soviet-installed government in Afghanistan.
After returning to Algeria in the 1990s, he joined a militant Algerian group and took refuge in Mali, where he was involved in smuggling and kidnapping for ransom, including the abduction of a Canadian diplomat in 2008.
Mr. Belmokhtar became a leading figure in Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, or A.Q.I.M., the Qaeda affiliate in North Africa.
But in 2012, he split with the group to lead the Al Mulathameen Battalion, which was officially designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the State Department in December 2013.
In January 2013, Mr. Belmokhtar led the attack on the gas plant in Algeria that resulted in the death of 38 civilians, including three Americans. Four months later, his group joined with a West African terrorist faction — the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa — to carry out attacks in Niger that killed at least 20 people, the State Department said.
In August, Mr. Belmokhtar’s faction and the West African extremists announced that they were joining to establish yet another group, Al Murabitoun.