TOP AL QAEDA LEADER DEATH CONFIRMED BY FRENCH AUTHORITIES

photo: france24

The French government has issued a statement today relating that it has positively identified Abou Zeid's body.  Abou Zeid was the leader of the Maghreb group that is linked to Al Qaeda.  

Abou Zeid was killed following an intense military operation in northern Mali last month.

The death was supposed to have occurred while the militant group was fighting in the Ifoghas mountains of northern Mali.

This declaration ends the swirl of uncertainty that followed the initial statements on his death. Both the terrorist group to which he belongs, the AQIM, or al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, and the media were at odds in determining whether the leader was to be declared dead.  

The French president released a statement calling the death of Abou Zeid "a milestone in the fight against extremists in the Sahel".

Abou Zeid, a minute man, old and rickety, had reached legendary status among the terrorist group.  He was a shadowy figure, very rarely seen, who moved in the harshest regions of the Sahel, and was at the head of the AQIM's most radical faction, the El Fatihine katiba. This same faction was responsible for the killing of a British tourist in 2009 and a French aid worker in 2010.  

Abu Zeid hails from Algiers and was active during the civil war that followed the failed attempt of the Islamist faction to rule Algeria after the elections.  He was also active in the Salafist group that was at the time headed by notorious AQIM leader Mokhtar Belmokhtar, before himself being hailed as their chief.  

Source: France 24  3.23.13