Top al-Qaeda commander Djamel Okacha is killed in ‘spectacular’ ambush after years-long manhunt, France says
- French commandos, helicopters and a drone attacked a convoy carrying Djamel Okacha near Timbuktu in northern Mali
- Okacha allegedly masterminded the kidnapping of Westerners in the Sahel region
French armed forces have killed a top jihadist leader in an air and ground ambush in Mali, the government said on Friday, ending a years-long hunt for a man accused of masterminding the kidnapping of Westerners in the Sahel region.
Djamel Okacha, an Algerian commander in al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), was killed on Thursday after French commandos, helicopters and a drone hit a column of vehicles he was travelling north of Timbuktu, French officials said.
Okacha, a jihadist veteran known also as Yahya Abou El Hamame, was “the mastermind and financier of several attacks,” the defence ministry said. US officials had accused him of kidnapping a number of Westerners in North and West Africa.
Defence Minister Florence Parly described his killing as a “spectacular action”, saying it followed a manhunt which lasted several years.
His death “deals a very hard blow to terrorist groups in the Sahel,” Parly said.