Al-Qaeda denies US killed Belmokhtar

TRIPOLI: Al-Qaeda in North Africa has denied reports its former leader Mokhtar Belmokhtar was killed in a US airstrike last week in Libya, in a statement posted online overnight.
“The mujahid Khaled Abu Al-Abbas is still alive and well,” said the statement from Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, using the name by which Belmokhtar is widely known in radical circles.
“The real target of the airstrike was the Libyan lions,” the extremist group said, referring to fighters in the strife-torn North African country.
Libya’s internationally recognized government said on Sunday that Belmokhtar — who has been reported dead on several previous occasions — was killed in a US airstrike.
The Pentagon said Belmokhtar had been the target of the strike but was non-committal about whether F-15 Strike Eagle fighter jets armed with 500-pound bombs had succeeded in killing the Algerian militant.
Ansar Al-Sharia group also denied Belmokhtar had been killed in the raids. It said in a statement that “seven martyrs” died in the strike that targeted a farm near Ajdabiya, some 160 km west of Benghazi.
Belmokhtar, nicknamed variously as “The Uncatchable,” “Mr Marlboro” and “The One-Eyed,” is leader of the North African Al-Murabitoun militant group and a former chief AQIM.