Libyan authorities have issued a statement saying that key terrorist leader Mokhtar Belmokhtar has been killed in U.S. airstrike
The United States has also confirmed that it carried out an airstrike in Libya early Sunday against the mastermind of the 2013 terrorist seizure of an Algerian gas plant that left 38 foreign hostages dead.
American officials were quoted by the New York Times, as confirming that Belmokhtar was the target of the strike, carried out by multiple American F-15E fighter jets.
But, at the same time, they expressed caution about his fate, saying forensic proof was needed to declare with certainty that he had been killed.
The Libyan statement said: “The Libyan government announces that American planes undertook action that resulted in the death of the wanted terrorist Mokhtar Belmokhtar and a number of Libyans belonging to one of the terrorist groups in Eastern Libya, after consultation
with the Libyan interim government to take action on terrorist leadership present on Libyan soil.”
If confirmed, the death of Mr. Belmokhtar would be a major counterterrorism victory for the United States against one of the world’s most wanted militants.