Mokhtar Belmokhtar, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death
TweetMokhtar Belmokhtar
Algerian al-Qaeda member
Date of Birth: 
Place of Birth: Ghardaia, Ghardaïa Province, Algeria
About Mokhtar Belmokhtar
- Mokhtar Belmokhtar (; Arabic: ????? ????????; born 1 June 1972), also known as The One-Eyed, Nelson, The Uncatchable, is an Algerian leader of the group Al-Murabitoun, former military commander of Al-Qaeda in the Maghreb, smuggler and weapons dealer.
- He was twice convicted and sentenced to death in absentia under separate charges in Algerian courts: in 2007 for terrorism and in 2008 for murder.
- In 2004, he was sentenced to life imprisonment in Algeria for terrorist activities.Born in northern Algeria, Belmokhtar traveled to Afghanistan in 1991 to fight with the mujahadeen against the pro-Soviet government following the withdrawal of Soviet Union troops.
- There, he lost his left eye while mishandling explosives.
- He later joined the Islamist GIA fighting in the Algerian Civil War and following that became a commander in the Mali-based Islamist Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). In December 2012, Belmokhtar announced he was leaving AQIM and headed his own organisation, dubbed the Al-Mulathameen ("Masked") Brigade (also known as the al-Mua'qi'oon Biddam ("Those who Sign with Blood" Brigade).
- In January 2013, the Brigade took more than 800 people hostage at the Tigantourine gas facility in Algeria.
- 39 hostages were executed and one Algerian killed before the facility was recaptured by Algerian forces, who killed 29 members of the Brigade.
- The Brigade was listed by the US State Department as a Foreign Terrorist Organization in December 2013.On 2 March 2013, the Chadian state television and the Chadian Army reported that Belmokhtar had been killed in a raid by Chadian troops against a terrorist base in Mali.
- However, two months later, Belmokhtar claimed responsibility for two suicide truck bomb attacks — on a French-owned uranium mine in Arlit, Niger, and a military base 150 miles away in Agadez.On 14 June 2015, Libya's government announced that Belmokhtar was killed in a U.S.
- airstrike inside Libya.
- U.S.
- officials confirmed the airstrike and that Belmokhtar was a target, but were unable to confirm that Belmokhtar was killed.
- In November 2016, Belmokhtar was targeted again in a French airstrike, conducted by French aircraft in southern Libya, based on intelligence from the United States.
- U.S.
- officials were unable to confirm Belmokhtar's death.
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