French troops have killed a senior leader of al Qaeda’s North Africa wing during an operation in northeastern Mali, defence minister Florence Parly announced Friday hailing “a major success in the fight against terrorism”, reports RFI.
France’s Barkhane force “neutralised” Bah ag Moussa on Tuesday in an operation involving ground troops and helicopters, defence minister Parly said in a statement on Friday.
"A historic figure of the jihadist movement in the Sahel, Bah ag Moussa is considered responsible for several attacks against Malian and international forces," the statement said.
The former Malian army colonel, also known as Bamoussa Diarra, was on the US terrorism list.
He was a right-hand man of Iyad Ag Ghali, the leader of Mali's most prominent jihadi group, Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) or the Group to Support Islam and Muslims.