Mokhtar Belmokhtar was quoted by the private Mauritanian newspaper Nouakchott Infos and its online version Nouakchott Information Agency as saying that “it’s totally natural we benefited from Libyan arms in such conditions.”
The interview published Wednesday did not specify the types or quantity of arms involved. The executive editor of the paper, Mohamed Mahmoud Ould Aboulmaaly, who carried out the interview, said he spoke with Belmokhtar by telephone, but refused to give his location.
The report could not be independently confirmed.
Western leaders, joined by the UN Security Council, have expressed concern that vast supplies of now free-floating weaponry could end up in the hands of the Al-Qaeda franchise in North Africa, which roams in bands over the desert Sahel region stretching from Mauritania to Chad. Porous borders and weak governments make the area impossible to police.
They have called on Libyan transitional leaders to track down the arms and secure stockpiles and asked neighboring governments to do all they can to stop their proliferation. There is special concern over shoulder-fired missiles. US Assistant Secretary of State Andrew Shapiro said in October that Libya was believed to have about 20,000 shoulder-fired missiles in its arsenals before civil war began in March. He said terrorist groups have expressed interest in obtaining some of the missiles, which “could pose a threat to civil aviation.”
Belmokhtar, who goes by the name of Khaled Abou Al-Abass in the interview, is one of several chiefs of the southern arm of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, or AQIM.
AQIM, once concentrated in Algeria, where it is based, has rendered huge swaths of Mauritania, Mali and Niger off-limits to foreigners. The southern warlords are best known for kidnapping Westerners for ransom and are currently holding four French hostages, kidnapped in Niger in September 2010.
