Mokhtar Belmokhtar: former Al Qaeda leader 'killed in air strike'

The Libyan government claims that a US air strike has killed Mokhtar Belmokhtar, the mastermind behind the Algerian gas plant siege and one of the most elusive jihadists in the region.

The Pentagon confirmed that warplanes were sent to target Belmokhtar in the in the eastern Libyan city of Ajdabiya, but as yet has no evidence of his death. "We are continuing to assess the results of the operation and will provide more details as appropriate," said spokesman Colonel Steve Warren.

Belmokhtar was behind the 2013 attack on the BP gas plant where hundreds of people were taken hostage and 40 people died, including six Britons and three Americans. He has been on the US terror list for 12 years and a $5 million (£3.2 million) bounty was put on his head.

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But Belmokhtar's death has been reported prematurely in the past. In 2013, the military in Chad claimed to have killed him during fierce fighting in Northern Mali.

The militant, who lost an eye while waging jihad, has been dubbed "The Uncatchable" by French intelligence and was also known as Mr Marlboro for his role as a notorious cigarette smuggler.

He joined the Mujahedeen fighting Soviet forces in Afghanistan when he was barely 19 and went on to become one of the leaders of the influential terror group al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). "He is one of the best known warlords of the Sahara," said Stephen Ellis, an academic at the African Studies Centre in The Netherlands.

As well as the gas plant attack, Belmokhtar is also believed to be responsible for a twin car bombing in Niger that killed at least 25 people that same year and claims to have been to battlefronts "from Qardiz to Jalalabad to Kabul", the BBC reports.

He was dismissed for the terror group after infighting erupted in 2012 and on to set up a new jihadist group known as the Signed-in-Blood Battalion, the Masked Men Brigade and the Khaled Abu al-Abbas Brigade.

If confirmed, his death would represent "an extraordinary intelligence achievement against one of the most elusive and powerful jihadists in North Africa," says CNN.