Ali lived a life of petty crime and was serving a two-year prison sentence when the Algerian War began.

In June, la Pointe led teams setting explosives in street lights near bus stops and bombing a dance club that killed 17 people.

After Yacef's capture, la Pointe and three companions, Hassiba Ben Bouali, Mahmoud "Hamid" Bouhamidi and 'Petit Omar', held out in hiding until 8 October.

Tracked down by paras acting on a tip-off from an informer, Ali La Pointe was given the chance to surrender but refused, whereupon he, his companions and the house in which he was hiding were bombed by French paratroopers, killing him along with 20 other Algerians in the blast.

In 1954, when the Algerian War broke out, he escaped from the Barberousse prison, where he was serving a two-year sentence for attempted murder, and joined the National Liberation Front (FLN).

[14] After some figures of the local underworld suspected of being informants were executed, such as Rafai Abdelkader, Said Bud Abbot and Hocine Bourtachi,[10][12][15][16] he "sowed terror" in the casbah, according to Marie-Monique Robin by applying "revolutionary instructions, such as not allowing drinking alcohol or smoking".

[11] On 30 September 1956, two bombs exploded in two public places in Algiers, the Milk Bar and the Cafétaria, killing four and wounding fifty-two.