Algeria in the dark about the fate of fugitive terrorist chieftain Mokhtar Belmokhtar

Security sources told Echorouk that Algeria has so far received no information about the fate of fugitive terrorist chieftain Mokhtar Belmokhtar who is rumoured to have been either arrested or killed by paramilitary forces under the command of Libyan General, Khalifa Haftar, in the restive eastern Libyan city of Benghazi.

The news of Mokhtar Belmokhtar alias “Laouer” being neutralized by General Haftar’s forces during a swoop on Al-Qaida hide – out in Benghazi has spread like wildfire over the past two days on social networks.

However, official sources have so far neither confirmed nor denied such a development while other outlets have suggested that Belmokhtar’s elimination is just a hoax and that he is still entrenched together with his henchmen inside Libyan territory or somewhere in the Sahel region.

Mokhtar Belmokhtar is hiding in Libya, from where he plans to mastermind terrorist attacks across Africa’s Sahel region, according to some regional sources.

The elusive terrorist leader who is believed to be behind a deadly siege of an Algerian gas plant in January last year, was said to have been killed in northern Mali two months later, although security experts have since expressed doubts over the reports.

“For some time we have had evidence that Mokhtar Belmokhtar, one of the most dangerous Algerian terrorists who operated in northern Mali, has fled to Libya to avoid being arrested or killed. From the Libyan territory, he intends to control the entire Sahel,” a Malian security source recently said.

Belmokhtar’s whereabouts were confirmed by a Nigerian security source, and another source close to MINUSMA, the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Mali.

“Everyone agrees today that he is not dead, that he is still active, but that he has settled for a while in Libya where he is still active,” the MINUSMA source told reporters.

Belmokhtar was a leader of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), which, along with other armed Islamist groups, took advantage of a military coup in 2012 to occupy northern Mali before being driven out by French and African troops.

He split from AQIM last year and launched the Signatories in Blood, masterminding a raid of Algeria’s In Amenas gas plant in which 38 hostages were killed in a four-day siege before being neutralized by the ANP tropps.

The attack was said to have been carried out in retaliation for the French-led military intervention in Mali.

Branded “The Uncatchable”, the one-eyed terrorist chieftain is also believed to be behind twin car bombings in Niger in May 2013 that left at least 20 people dead.

The United States designated Belmokhtar’s group as a terrorist organization in December, and the State Department is offering a $5 million reward for information leading to his capture. Mokhtar Belmokhtar nicknamed “Laouer” is also actively wanted by the Algerian security services who see him as a highly-dangerous criminal linked to a terrorist organization.

General David Rodriguez, head of the US Africa Command, told reporters in January that Belmokhtar, who cut his teeth fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan in the 1980s, was still alive and had the means to stage another attacks.