By Libya Herald reporters.
Tripoli, 24 August 2015:
An Algerian terrorist leader who was the alleged target of US air strikes outside Ajdabiya . . .[restrict]this June, is now also said to be on an IS death list.
Social media posts purporting to come from IS have carried posters of Mokhtar Belmokhtar excoriating him as an infidel and carrying the message in English beneath his photograph “Wanted Dead”.
The one-eyed Belmokhtar, a former leader of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) quit the Al-Qaeda affiliate two years ago, taking with him his group known as Al-Murabitoon. Some AQIM sources insisted he was expelled because he was smuggling cigarettes and drugs.
Algerian authorities accuse him of masterminding the January 2013 assault on the In Amenas gas plant, which led to the death of 37 foreign oil workers.
However, other social media sites, which also claim to be speaking for IS, this afternoon claimed that the “Wanted Dead” posters were unauthorised. Tracking down the reliability of either message is the more difficult, since IS makes a habit of using multiple social media identities and web pages.
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