Mokhtar Belmokhtar (/ˈmɒktɑːr bɛlˈmɒktɑːr/;[1] Arabic: مختار بلمختار;[2][name 1] 1 June 1972[3] – November 2016), also known as Khalid Abu al-Abbas, The One-Eyed, Nelson, and The Uncatchable,[4] was an Algerian leader of the group Al-Murabitoun, former military commander of Al-Qaeda in the Maghreb, smuggler and weapons dealer.

[6][7][8] 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.

[11][12] 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.

[6][2] He married four local Berber and Tuareg women from prominent families in northern Mali, cementing his ties in the region.

[25] Belmokhtar's fierce reputation earned him prestige with the GIA, and he quickly rose to the rank of commander.

[32][33] He smuggled cigarettes, drugs, stolen cars, diamonds, and people, using the money to buy weapons to supply insurgent groups.

He also kidnapped for ransom dozens of Westerners, including diplomats, aid workers, doctors, and tourists from France, Germany, Austria, United Kingdom, Spain, Switzerland, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Canada.

[19] The global intelligence company Stratfor reported that Belmokhtar commanded an estimated $3 million per European captive.

[38] General Charles Wald wanted to provide information to Algeria and Mali so they could act on their own, but was refused permission by civilian U.S.

[32] By the time GSPC developed into Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) in 2006, Belmokhtar's reputation as a hardened fighter, leader, and financier gained him standing with the emir Abu Musab Abdel Wadoud (a.k.a.

In 2008, his men kidnapped the Canadian diplomats Robert Fowler and Louis Guay, who were working for the United Nations, and held them for 130 days.

[10] AQIM is thought to be the wealthiest al-Qaeda branch, after having gained ransoms of tens of millions of dollars for the release of kidnapped western hostages.

[41] According to the Associated Press, a letter addressed to Belmokhtar ("Abu Khaled"), signed by the 14-member Shura Council of AQIM and dated 3 October, details "in page after scathing page" complaints that he "didn't answer his phone when they called, failed to turn in his expense reports, ignored meetings and refused time and again to carry out orders.

[42] The letter describes a delegation sent to contact Belmokhtar that spent three years lost in the desert and then disintegrated without having reached him.

[43] It criticizes his plan to resign and start a separate organization taking orders from al-Qaida central headquarters not AQIM.

Your letter ... contained some amount of backbiting, name-calling and sneering, ... We refrained from wading into this battle in the past out of a hope that the crooked could be straightened by the easiest and softest means.

[44]AP states the letter, which was found "inside a building formerly occupied" by Belmokhtar fighters in Mali, has been authenticated by three different counterterrorism experts.

[45][46] In 2004, an Algerian court sentenced him in absentia to lifetime imprisonment for forming "terrorist" groups, robbery, detention, and use of illegal weapons.

[47] In 2007, another Algerian court sentenced him to death for forming terrorist groups, carrying out armed attacks, kidnapping foreigners, and importing and trafficking in illegal weapons.

Anouar Boukhars of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace saw the bombing as retaliation for the earlier French intervention in the Northern Mali conflict.

[73] On 14 April, Chadian president Idriss Déby Itno restated his previous claim that the army killed Belmokhtar, saying he blew himself up in despair after learning about the death of Abou Zeïd.

[81][82] Based on intelligence from the United States, in November 2016, Belmokhtar was again targeted in an airstrike conducted by French aircraft in southern Libya.

[14][83] In September 2021, al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri announced in a book that Belmokhtar had become a "martyr" but did not say when he was killed.