Washington is not sure of having killed terrorist chieftain Mokhtar Belmokhtar

The Washington Post reported that the US Government first believed to have killed terrorist ringleader Mokhtar Belmokhtar in Libya, but now harbours serious doubts about his presumed death.

The newspaper said US officials were convinced that Joint Special military Operations’ agents had succeeded in eliminating the most wanted man in the world.

In June of last year, the US Special Operations Command, in charge of tracking down “Al Qaeda” terrorist elements, got wind of the presence of Belmokhtar in Ajdabiya in eastern Libya.

And therefore, US military planes conducted an operation by bombarding the suspected site with 500-pound bombs that resulted in the presumed death of Mokhtar Belmokhtar and a batch of Libyans belonging to the terrorist organization.

But after eight months, the US military and the CIA are not sure of having killed him, fueling the debate on what kind of air operation to undertake as the US military have no presence on the ground in order to check the scope of its strikes.

The only confirmations came from Libyans who said that Mokhtar Belmokhtar had been killed as a result of a strike of the US Air Force, which took place on a farm in Ajdabiya locality, 160 km west of Benghazi, capital of eastern Libya, where the latter was holding a meeting with other leaders of extremist groups.

For proof, the results were not conclusive in this case and it may become more uncertain if the next US president will build his future strategy on that of Barack Obama in the fight against terrorism by not committing US combat troops on the ground and relying only on random airstrikes.