Mokhtar 'Marlboro' Belmokhtar among two leading jihadist figures claimed to have been killed
There were fears for the safety at least four European hostages in the West African desert after reports of fierce fighting in northern Mali that may have claimed the lives of two leading al-Qaida-linked field commanders.
French officials said the weekend fighting, in the Ifoghas mountains near the Algerian border, had claimed the life of a paratrooper, 26-year-old Corporal Cedric Charenton, the third French soldier to have been killed since France launched Operation Serval on 11 January.
On Saturday Chad, which has deployed 2,000 troops alongside the forces from Mali and France, announced the death in the Ametetai valley, in the Ifoghas mountains, of one of the leaders of al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (Aqim), Mokhtar "Marlboro" Belmokhtar.
The unconfirmed announcement came a day after the Chadian president, Idriss Déby, said his troops had killed "hostage banker" Abdelhamid Abou Zeid at Mount Tighahar. If both deaths are confirmed they will mark a significant setback for the jihadists of the Sahara.
The death of Belmokhtar — who claimed responsibility for the In Amenas Algerian oil installation hostage taking that claimed 60 lives in January — has been reported several times in the past. Reports of his death were being treated seriously by diplomats in the Malian capital, Bamako, on Sunday, but a monitoring service that tracks online militant forums said an anonymous participant in several of them had posted that Belmokhtar was "alive and well and leading the battles himself".
The United States-based Site service reported that Belmokhtar, the leader of al-Qaida offshoot Moulathamine ("those who sign in blood"), would soon issue a message.
France would not comment on claims of Belmokhtar's death. However, French and Algerian media reported that relatives in Algeria of Abou Zeid had provided the French authorities with DNA samples as part of moves to verify his identity.
Some diplomats said that France's silence over the two reported deaths may be out of fear of endangering the lives of four French hostages, Pierre Legrand, Thierry Dol, Daniel Larribe and Marc Féret, who were kidnapped in neighbouring Niger in September 2010.
Other diplomats cautioned against believing the Chadian claims as long as neither Aqim nor any other Islamic network released their names as martyrs.
France said that Charenton was fatally wounded during an assault on an Islamist hideout in the Ifoghas mountains. A French army spokesman, Colonel Thierry Burkhard, said that some 15 Islamists had been killed in some of the fiercest fighting during the campaign so far.
"We are facing a very fanatical adversary," Burkhard said, adding that the rebels were armed with rocket and grenade-launchers as well as machine guns, AK47 assault rifles and heavy weapons. "They are fighting without giving ground."
Belmokhtar, whose cigarette smuggling activities in the desert earned him the nickname Mr Marlboro, is reported to have begun his career in Afghanistan in the 1980s where he lost an eye.
After Afghanistan he fought with the Groupes Islamistes Armées (GIA) in Algeria and in 2003 was linked to the kidnapping of a group of 30 European tourists.
Abou Zeid is reputed for being a "hostage banker" who — according to legend — has hidden £14m in the desert, all of it money raised from kidnap ransoms.
He is reported to have killed the British hostage Edwin Dyer in 2009 and the 78-year-old Frenchman Michel Germaneau in 2010.
Mali's army, meanwhile, said that it had killed at least a dozen Islamist rebels in fighting at Diébok, east of Gao, northern Mali's largest town, with support from French helicopters and ground troops.
Army spokesman Souleyman Maiga said the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (Mujao) rebels had been killed after soldiers went to investigate claims of a trader having been kidnapped and tortured.
He added that there were no casualties on the Malian side.