LONDON — Mokhtar Belmokhtar, the one-eyed smuggler-jihadist said to be behind the seizure of foreign hostages at a gas plant in Algeria, has been a notorious kingpin of the Sahara for more than a decade.
As a successful kidnapper, cigarette smuggler — he is nicknamed “Mr. Marlboro” — and go-between for Al Qaeda, Mr. Belmokhtar has been a wanted man in his native Algeria after returning from training with jihadists in Afghanistan in 1993.
He returned at the height of a bloody decade-long civil war between the Algerian government and Islamist insurgents, acting as a channel between Al Qaeda leaders and local jihadist groups.
Raising money through kidnappings and smuggling, he has been a main supplier of weapons and equipment to insurgent groups and “has become increasingly integrated into the fabric of the Sahara and Sahel,” according to a 2009 Jamestown Foundation study that was based in part on Mr. Belmokhtar’s own account.
His activities led to him being included in a United Nations blacklist of wanted Qaeda associates.
Security agencies in Algeria and beyond might know who “Mr. Marlboro” is. But what is his motive in the operation to seize Western hostages?
In the past, he has staged kidnappings for money, negotiating the freedom of his captives in exchange for millions of dollars in ransom.
This time, the group he leads has linked the operation to events in Mali, where the French military has intervened to prevent an advance by Islamist forces that control the north of the country.
Mr. Belmokhtar, 40, is thought to be based in Mali in the rebel-held town of Gao, which has been attacked by French warplanes. Some believe he is masterminding the hostage operation from there.
The hostage-takers have demanded an end to the intervention and a reversal of Algeria’s decision to allow the French military to fly over its territory on the way to Mali.
Mr. Belmokhtar might also be seeking to reassert his role as a central player in the factionalized Islamist politics of the region after a recent move by the local Qaeda affiliate to push him aside.
He was removed from a military leadership role in Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb in October, according to French broadcaster RFI, after falling out with the movement’s leaders.
He then announced the creation of his own brigade as part of a rapprochement with Mujao, a jihadist group that has broken with Al Qaeda.
He is also thought to be close to leaders of Mali’s Tuareg tribesmen, possibly through one of his many marriages. The Tuareg’s seizure of northern Mali last year was rapidly taken over by jihadists.
It is as yet unclear whether the Algerian hostage-taking was a rapid response to the French intervention in Mali or whether it was preplanned for other motives.
Mr. Belmokhtar, condemned in his absence to life imprisonment by Algerian courts, was already scheduled to be tried in absentia by the Algiers criminal tribunal next Monday on charges that include supplying weapons for attacks on Algerian soil.
Planned targets were said to include pipelines and oil company installations in southern Mali.
IHT Rendezvous: Jihadist Kingpin Suspected in Hostage Seizure
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IHT Rendezvous: Jihadist Kingpin Suspected in Hostage Seizure
