Al-Qaeda Chief in Mali Killed by Air Strike While Planning Suicide Attack
Al Qaida chief killed by air strike in Mali was plotting suicide attack
CAIRO — A senior Al Qaida operative has been killed in Mali.
Mauritania has reported the killing of a leading operative of Al Qaida Organization in the Islamic Maghreb. The operative was identified as Tayeb Ould Sidi Ali, said to have planned several attacks in Mauritania since 2008.
"He was killed in an air strike as he was planning a suicide bombing," a security source said.
The source said Ali was killed on Oct. 20 in the Wagadou forest in western Mali. Over the last few years, Mali has served as a haven for AQIM.
Mauritania had been searching for Ali since 2007. The source said he planned car bombings that had been meant to kill Mauritanian President Mohammed Ould Abdul Aziz as well as destroy the French embassy in Nouakchott.
On Oct. 20, the Mauritanian Army reported the destruction of an AQIM base in Mali's Wagadou. The army said the base as well as two vehicles were being used to plan an attack against Mauritania.
"Our forces this morning carried out preventative air strikes in order to destroy the enemy," a military spokesman said.
The source said Mauritania has intensified operations against AQIM in Mali. The Mauritania Army was said to have been helped by French military trainers.
AQIM, however, has continued operations in North Africa. On Oct. 23, AQIM was believed to have abducted three European aid workers in Algiera. Officials said the two Spaniards and an Italian were seized after a gun battle near Tindouf in Western Sahara.
"The kidnappers infiltrated from Malian territory using an all-terrain vehicle and firearms," the Polisario movement, which controls the Tindouf area of Western Sahara, said. "The terrorists went back the way they came with the hostages."
GRENDEL REPORT, 31/10/2011
