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Known as the "one-eyed," Moktar Belmoktar's profile soared after the mid-January attack and mass hostage-taking on a huge Algerian gas plant.

Chad's military chief announced late Saturday that his troops deployed in northern Mali had killed Moktar Belmoktar, the terrorist who orchestrated the attack on a natural gas plant in Algeria that left 36 foreigners dead.

The French military, which is leading the offensive against al-Qaida-linked rebels in Mali, said they could not immediately confirm the information.

Local officials in Kidal, the northern town that is being used as the base for the military operation, cast doubt on the assertion, saying Chadian officials are attempting to score a PR victory to make up for the significant losses they have suffered in recent days.

Known as the "one-eyed," Belmoktar's profile soared after the mid-January attack and mass hostage-taking on a huge Algerian gas plant. His purported death comes a day after Chad's president said his troops had killed Abou Zeid, the other main al-Qaida commander operating in northern Mali.

If both deaths are confirmed, it would mean that the international intervention in Mali had succeeded in decapitating two of the pillars of al-Qaida in the Sahara.

"Chad's armed forces in Mali have completely destroyed a base used by jihadists and narcotraffickers in the Adrar and Ifoghas mountains" of northern Mali, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Zakaria Ngobongue said in a televised statement on state-owned National Chadian Television. "The provisional toll is as follows: Several terrorists killed, including Moktar Belmoktar."

The French military moved into Mali on Jan. 11 to push back militants linked to Belmoktar and Abou Zeid and other extremist groups who had imposed harsh Islamic rule in the north of the vast country and who were seen as an international terrorist threat.

France is trying to rally other African troops to help in the military campaign, since Mali's military is weak and poor. Chadian troops have offered the most robust reinforcement.

In Paris, French military spokesman Col. Thierry Burkhard said that he had "no information" on the possibility that Belmoktar was dead. The Foreign Ministry refused to confirm or deny the report.

A spokesman for Chad's presidential palace did not immediately return a request for comment.

In Kidal in northern Mali, an elected official, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press, said that he did not believe that Belmoktar was dead and waved off the claim as an attempt by Chad to explain the loss of dozens of their troops to a grieving nation.

"These last few weeks, the Chadians have lost a significant number of soldiers in combat. (Claiming that they killed Belmoktar) is a way to give some importance to their intervention in Mali," said the official, who keeps in close contact with both French and Malian commanders in the field.

Belmoktar, an Algerian, is believed to be in his 40s, and like his sometimes partner and sometimes rival, Abou Zeid, he began on the path to terrorism after Algeria's secular government voided the 1991 election won by an Islamic party.

Both men joined the Armed Islamic Group, or GIA, and later its offshoot, the GSPC, a group that carried out suicide bombings on Algerian government targets.

Around 2003, both men crossed into Mali, where they began a lucrative kidnapping business, snatching European tourists, aid workers, government employees and even diplomats and holding them for multimillion-dollar ransoms.

The Algerian terror cell amassed a significant war chest, and joined the al-Qaida fold in 2006, renaming itself al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb.

Belmoktar claims he trained in Afghanistan in the 1990s, including in one of Osama Bin Laden's camps. It was there that he reportedly lost an eye, earning him the nickname "Laaouar," Arabic for "one-eyed."

Until last December, Belmoktar and Abou Zeid headed separate brigades under the flag of al-Qaida's chapter in the Sahara. But after months of reports of infighting between the two, Belmoktar peeled off, announcing the creation of his own terror unit, still loyal to the al-Qaida ideology but separate from al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb.

It was this group that launched the fatal attack on a BP-operated natural gas plant in southeastern Algeria in retaliation for the French-led military intervention in Mali.

In the attack and in the subsequent rescue attempt, 37 people, all but one of them foreigners, were killed inside the complex. Belmoktar claimed responsibility for the attack within hours, immediately catapulting him into the ranks of international terrorists.

In addition to the alleged killing of Belmoktar, Ngobongue said that Chad's military had also nabbed 60 of the jihadists' cars, electronic equipment and weapons. "The raid is still ongoing," he said.

Related:

Chad claims to have killed feared al-Qaida commander in Mali

Eric Feferberg / AFP - Getty Images

A Malian soldier holds a machine gun as he stands guard at the entrance of a strategic bridge over the Niger river on Jan. 22, 2013, near Markala, north of Bamako. Mali's army chief today said his French-backed forces could reclaim the northern towns of Gao and fabled Timbuktu from Islamists in a month, as the United States began airlifting French troops to Mali.

Chadian forces advanced towards the Malian border on Tuesday as an African troop deployment and a U.S. military airlift swelled international support for French operations against Islamist rebels occupying the north of Mali.

An armored column of Chadian troops, experienced in desert operations, moved north from the Niger capital Niamey on the road to Ouallam, some 60 miles from the Malian border, where Nigerien troops are already stationed.

France, which launched air strikes in Mali 11 days ago to halt a surprise Islamist offensive toward the capital Bamako, has urged a swift deployment of the planned U.N.-mandated African force to back up its 2,150 soldiers already there.

The number of French troops could be boosted to more than 3,000 in the coming days and weeks, a source with knowledge of the matter said on Tuesday.

The aim of the intervention is to prevent northern Mali from becoming a launchpad for international attacks by al-Qaida and its local allies in North and West Africa. Fears of this increased sharply after a hostage-taking raid by Islamist militants last week on a gas plant in Algeria.

An entry into Mali from Niger by part of the African force would widen the front of operations against the Islamist alliance in the north that groups al-Qaida's North African wing AQIM and the Malian militant groups Ansar Dine and MUJWA.

On Monday, French and Malian armored columns moved into the towns of Diabaly and Douentza in central Mali after the rebels who had seized them fled into the bush to avoid air strikes. Diabaly is only 220 miles north of Bamako, while Douentza is 500 miles away from the riverside capital.

Niger President Mahamadou Issoufou, who visited the troops at Ouallam, condemned the Islamist alliance, and an imam, or Muslim cleric, said prayers for the troops.

"We are going to war. A war imposed on us by traffickers of all kinds, an unjust war, from which the peaceful citizens of northern Mali are suffering terribly," Issoufou told the forces.

"I am confident in your burning desire for victory."

France says its troops will remain in Mali until they have completely dislodged the Islamist fighters from the north and fair elections can be held in its former colony.

In support of France, the United States has started transporting French soldiers and equipment to Mali from the Istres air base in southern France. Washington on Tuesday completed the fifth of an estimated 30 flights in an airlift expected to run for about a week.

A Reuters correspondent in Bamako saw a U.S. military cargo plane land at the international airport and offload about 40 French soldiers, jeeps, and other equipment.

Britain, Belgium, Canada and Denmark were already transporting French materiel to Mali. Benson said the United States was also working with France on intelligence issues, but declined to say if surveillance drones were being used.
 
'Everyone will fight'
France has also sent jet fighters and attack helicopters that have blasted rebel bases for more than a week, as it awaits troops from nearby African nations to deploy to the front line.

Some 1,000 African troops from the West African regional bloc ECOWAS and the central African nation of Chad have arrived, and that number is expected to top 5,000 in the coming weeks.

Military experts say the swift and effective deployment of African forces is crucial to sustain the momentum of France's air campaign and prevent Islamists from melting away into the empty desert or the rugged mountains near the Algerian border.

Niger's armed forces, which completed their training a month ago, are expected to advance toward the rebel-held north Malian city of Gao in collaboration with the Chadian troops. It was not clear when exactly they would cross the border.

Gao, the largest city of Mali's north, has been hit by French air strikes in recent days.

Niger has already sent a technical team to Mali, part of a battalion of 544 troops accompanied by French liaison officers.

Nigeria, a big oil producer, also plans to deploy some 1,200 troops in Mali and its president, Goodluck Jonathan, said they would stay there until the crisis was resolved.

Col. Oumar Kande, ECOWAS military and security adviser in Mali, told Reuters in Bamako the original plan for the U.N.-backed ECOWAS military intervention in the north was being changed to adapt to fast-evolving circumstances.

Instead of the Malian army alone playing the combat role, with ECOWAS supporting, now "everyone will fight", Kande said.

"We need to adjust to the reality on the ground."

Kande said ECOWAS was concerned about its troops having to fight a difficult counter-insurgency war in a northern Mali desert and mountain battleground the size of Texas against Islamist fighters likely to shun a head-on conventional fight.

"Given the force of the reaction from the international community, they (the rebels) are likely to adjust and begin an asymmetrical war, ambushes, strikes by small cells," he said.

"It is possible we will win back Timbuktu, Gao, and Kidal in a month, but it is impossible to say how long the overall war will last."

The rebels have imposed severe Shariah law in areas they control, carrying out amputations and at least one fatal stoning, and wrecking ancient shrines sacred to moderate Sufi Muslims.

$450 million sought for African troops
International donors will be asked to finance training and support for the Malian, ECOWAS and other African troops involved in the deployment of the U.N.-backed African force AFISMA against the Islamist alliance.

Donors are to meet at a conference in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa on Jan. 29, and France said they would be asked to provide about $452 million (about 340 million euros).

"We estimate that the Malian forces needs will be around 120 million euros and about 220 million euros for AFISMA for a full year," French Foreign Ministry spokesman Philippe Lalliot said.

Since the French started their operations earlier in January to block the jihadist thrust out of northern Mali, several thousand civilians have fled the recent fighting to neighboring states, the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR said. In Mauritania, 4,208 Malian refugees have arrived since Jan. 11, it said.

Niger had seen 1,300 new refugees, mainly from Menaka and Anderamboukane, while during the same period, Burkina Faso had received 1,829 new refugees, mainly Tuaregs and Songhai from the regions of Gossi, Timbuktu, Gao and Bambara Maoude.

This was on top of almost 400,000 Malians displaced since April, when an offensive by Tuareg rebels allied with Islamist fighters seized Mali's largely desolate north following a military coup in Bamako in March.

Related:

France and Mali set aside colonial past to fight new common foe

Violence in Mali, Algeria raises fresh fear of radical Islam

Issouf Sanogo / AFP - Getty Images

Nigerian soldiers arrive at the airport in Bamako on Thursday as part of the West African force meant to help French troops drive Islamists from their strongholds in northern Mali.

BAMAKO/SEGOU, Mali — The first West African regional forces arrived in Mali on Thursday to reinforce French and Malian troops battling to push back al Qaida-linked rebels after seven days of French air strikes.

A contingent of around 100 Togolese troops landed in Bamako and was due to be joined by Nigerian forces already en route. Nigerien and Chadian forces were massing in Niger, Mali's neighbor to the east.

The scrambling of the U.N.-mandated African mission, which previously had not been due for deployment until September, will be a boon for France, the former colonial power in Mali.

French troops, which had moved northwards from Bamako in an armored column on Tuesday, pinned down some Islamist fighters in the small town of Diabaly. But French forces held back from launching an all-out assault as the insurgents had taken refuge in the homes of civilians, residents said.

"The Islamists are still in Diabaly. They are very many of them. Every time they hear a plane overhead, they run into homes, traumatizing the people," said one woman who fled the town with her three children overnight.

Residents in the town of Konna, to the north of the central garrison town of Sevare, said Islamists had fled as Malian soldiers backed by French troops deployed.

"Life is difficult for the people of northern Mali and the international community has the duty to help these people," said Togolese Lieutenant Colonel Mawoute Bayassim Gnamkoulamba.

"That is why we think that it is necessary for us to protect Mali and we are proud today to fulfill that mission."

French forces, numbering some 1,400 soldiers, began ground operations on Wednesday against an Islamist coalition grouping al Qaida's North African wing AQIM and the home-grown Ansar Dine and MUJWA militants.

Averting creation of a 'terrorist state'
French President Francois Hollande ordered the intervention on the grounds that the Islamists who had taken over the poor West African country's north could turn it into a "terrorist state" which would radiate a threat beyond its borders.

Hollande has pledged they will stay until stability returns to Mali but, in the first apparent retaliatory attack, al Qaida-linked militants took dozens of foreigners hostage at a gas plant in Algeria, blaming Algerian cooperation with France.

Meantime, the United States agreed to a French request for airlift capacity to help troops and equipment to Mali, a limited expansion of American support in the battle against Islamist rebels there, U.S. officials said on Thursday.

One U.S. official said the Air Force could start cargo flights, likely using C-17 aircraft but possibly also larger C-5s, in as little as a day. But details have yet to be worked out and no timetable has been decided.

A total of 2,500 French troops are expected in Mali but Paris is keen to swiftly hand the mission over to West Africa's ECOWAS bloc, which in December secured a U.N. mandate for a 3,300-strong mission to help Mali recapture its north.

A rebel push into central Mali was last week halted by bombings by French aircraft and the deployment of ground troops.

A convoy of armored vehicles, fuel tankers and ambulances and around 200 soldiers from Mali's eastern neighbor Niger was positioned at that eastern border, witnesses said.

A Reuters witness at the scene said heavy weapons fire rang out as troops tested artillery.

Communications with residents in Islamist-controlled towns have become more difficult as some mobile phone towers have stopped working. Residents said rebel fighters are suspicious of anyone using phones, fearing they are passing information to the enemy.

"There are no longer any police stations. (The Islamists) have dispersed across the city, mixing in with the population," said Ibrahim Mamane, a resident from the town of Gao who reached the border with Niger.

"The population is ready and is waiting for the French forces with open arms. If they attack Gao, the people will fight the Islamists with their bare hands," he added.

Reuters journalists travelling north of Bamako saw residents welcoming French troops and, in places, French and Malian flags hung side by side.

Mali's recent troubles began with a coup in Bamako last March, ending a period of stable rule that saw a series of elections. In the confusion that followed, Islamist forces seized large swathes of the north and imposed a strict rule reminiscent of Afghanistan under the Taliban.

Military experts say France and its African allies must now capitalize on a week of hard-hitting air strikes by seizing the initiative on the ground to prevent the insurgents from withdrawing into the desert and reorganizing.

"The whole world clearly needs to unite and do much more than is presently being done to contain terrorism," Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan said.

A second orphaned elephant was rescued in Chad after poachers attacked a herd twice in the same week, SOS Elephants said Tuesday. 

"The new orphan was rescued yesterday and reached our camp early this morning," SOS Elephants founder Stephanie Vergniault told NBC News. "He is fighting for his life now in our camp with the vet."

The attacks happened on July 23, when 34 elephants were killed, and on July 27, when 5 carcasses were found.

Two adult elephants were found alive after the July 27 killing. A female that had three calves with her was wounded and a team was trying to track her to eventually provide aid. 

An orphan found earlier by SOS Elephants has since been adopted by a female from the herd and appears to be doing well.

No arrests have been made, Vergniault said.

The poachers have hacked off the trunks of the elephants in order to take their tusks and sell the ivory.

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SOS Elephants

An orphaned elephant nicknamed Toto is cared for in a remote Chad village. He was found after some 30 elephants in a herd were slaughtered by poachers.

A three-week-old elephant orphaned when his mother and two dozen other elephants were slaughtered in Chad last month appears to have been adopted by a foster mom, a nonprofit in the Central African country told NBC News.

Nicknamed Toto, the male was being cared for by village officials when he ran away and later reached a nearby herd, said SOS Elephants founder Stephanie Vergniault. 

"Now he seems to have an adoptive mother," she said, but noted "we are not sure she is accepting him 100 percent." SOS Elephants asked local officials to provide volunteers to monitor the situation.

SOS Elephants had initially thought it would have to ship Toto to a protected wildlife refuge in Kenya, but now hopes he'll become one of the herd.

At least 26 elephants were killed in the slaughter on July 24 and the poachers still haven't been caught. Asian demand for ivory products has pushed prices beyond that of gold or drugs, fueling the killing of elephants across Africa.

Vergniault suspects a local ivory-smuggling gang that uses "cars with tinted windows and no license plates" is protecting the poachers with weapons and food.

"They are difficult to find because they do not necessarily need to go to the local villages to buy what they need," she said of the poachers.

Related story: Elephants slaughtered in Chad

"Many (locals) know about the trafficking, including some authorities, but they are so afraid to lose their life that they shut their mouth," she added.

SOS Elephants has urged Chad to provide special wildlife troops and to create a protected area -- expensive propositions for a poor country. 

On top of that, locals would have to be relocated outside the protected area, Vergniault said, and they would need to be compensated with things like a school, medical facility, and/or seeds and tools for farming.

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The carcasses of elephants slaughtered by poachers are seen in Boubou Ndjida National Park, located in Cameroon, near the border with Chad.

JOHANNESBURG – Fueled by an Asian demand for ivory, poachers have slaughtered more than 200 elephants in the past five weeks in a patch of Africa where they are more dangerously endangered than anywhere else on Earth, wildlife activists say.

Heavily armed poachers from Chad and Sudan had decimated the elephant population of Bouba Ndjida National Park in Cameroon's far north in a dry season killing spree, officials say.

"We are talking about a very serious case of trans-frontier poaching, involving well-armed poachers with modern weapons from Sudan and Chad who are decimating this wildlife species to make quick money from the international ivory trade," said Gambo Haman, governor of Cameroon's North region.

Speaking on local radio, Haman said some of the poachers were on horseback and operated in cahoots with the local population, who were given free elephant meat and were glad to be rid of animals that damage their crops.

The International Fund for Animal Welfare said cross-border poaching was common during the dry season but the scale of the killings so far this year was unprecedented.  "This latest massacre is massive and has no comparison to those of the preceding years," the group said in a statement.

Embassies of the United States, the European Union, Britain and France had sounded alarm bells about the slaughter and had called on Cameroon's government to take urgent action to stop the killing.

Cameroon has dispatched a rapid reaction force to the zone but Haman said there were not enough troops to cover the remote park in Cameroon's far north.

Need for ivory
Citing a record number of large scale ivory seizures in 2011, TRAFFIC, a conservation group that tracks trends in wildlife trading, has warned of a surge in elephant poaching in Africa to meet Asian demand for tusks for use in jewelry and ornaments.

"The ivory is smuggled out of West and Central Africa for markets in Asia and Europe, and the money it raises funds arms purchases for use in regional conflicts, particularly ongoing unrest in Sudan and in the Central African Republic," said the animal fund's Paris-based spokeswoman Celine Sissler-Bienvenu.

Wildlife experts said recently that large seizures of elephant tusks made 2011 the worst on record for elephants since ivory sales were banned in 1989.

The fund said estimates suggested as many as 3,000 elephants were killed by poachers across the continent last year.

The organization warned that countries such as Chad could lose their entire elephant population in the very near future if current poaching levels are sustained.

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

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