MOKHTAR BELMOKHTAR: THE SAHARA'S ONE-EYED JIHADI MASTERMIND WHO KEEPS COMING BACK FROM THE DEAD
The one-eyed jihadi was behind the attack on a gas facility in Algeria in 2013, which left 38 dead, including six Britons
Meet the one-eyed terror chief, who
has come back from the dead so often he's been nicknamed Lazurus,
behind some of the deadliest plots of the last few years - but whose
inability to do paperwork led to a telling off few would expect.
Veteran
jihadi Mokhtar Belmokhtar - who has a $5million (£3.3million) bounty on
his head - is not only one of the most deadly Islamist leaders in the
world, but also one of the most colourful.
Over the last 24 years he has risen through the ranks, developing a reputation for daring attacks and for kidnapping foreigners - wreaking havoc across the Sahara.
The
jihadi is best known in recent years for masterminding the attack
against a gas facility in Algeria in 2013, taking 800 people hostage and
executing 39 before the plant was taken back by Algerian forces. Six of
those he murdered were British.
Belmokhtar, now 43, has been fighting for Islamists since he was 19, after he became interested in jihad as a schoolboy.
Born
in northern Algeria, Belmokhtar travelled to Afghanistan while still a
teenager. Here, he claims he lost an eye in battle and trained in Al
Qaeda's camps. In truth, it appears it was lost when he was fiddling
with explosives.
He funds his activities smuggling cigarettes across the desert - earning him the nickname Mr Marlboro.
His
decision to split from the international terror group came in 2013 - a
decision, it was later revealed, spurred on by a letter chastising him
for not answering the phone, murdering enough people or handing in his
expenses.
The
renamed Al-Mourabitoun - which translates as The Sentinals - are based
in the Sahara, and conduct attacks in Mali, Niger and Libya.
Despite
this, Belmokhtar, who has four wives, has remained linked to the group -
earlier this year refusing to pledge allegiance to ISIS.
This
latest attack comes just months after it was rumoured he had died -
reports which followed three previous claims of his death, which have
always proved not to be true.
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