Six years after fleeing from Tunisia, where he founded the Ansar al-Sharia organization and conflicting stories about his fate, a group linked to al-Qaeda in West Africa confirmed the killing of Saifullah bin Hussein (Abu Ayyad) in an operation of French troops in central Mali.

The website "Saite", which specializes in following the news of groups described as "jihadist" of the group "Support of Islam and Muslims" confirmed in a statement - the killing of the Algerian leader Yahya Abu Hammam (Jamal Okasha), Tunisian Abu Ayyad (52 years) Which is the backbone of the "Burgan" force deployed in the Sahel to deal with groups mainly linked to al-Qaeda.

The group's statement did not say whether the two men were killed during the same operation on February 21 northwest of Timbuktu, but this is probably the case.

The French Ministry of Defense issued a statement after the operation a day in which it confirmed that its troops spotted three vehicles moving suspiciously in the area of ​​Timbuktu, adding that the gunmen opened fire at the French troops for helicopters to target the vehicles.

The statement added that in addition to Yahya Abu Hammam, two of his aides were killed, as quoted by the site "Mena Stream" specialized in the transfer of news of the regions of North Africa and the African coast that Abu Ayyad was killed in a French raid near Timbuktu, without clarifying in turn if he died in the same raid that Killing the Algerian leader.

The statement issued by the group "Support for Islam and Muslims" is the first confirmation of its kind on the fate of one of the most wanted for the Tunisian authorities in cases of terrorism related to acts of violence and terrorism, including the storming of the US Embassy in September 2012 after the screening of an offensive film of Islam and the assassination of leftist opposition Shukri Belaid February 2013, and then the assassination of Tunisian opposition Mohamed El Barahmi in July of the same year.

Even before the Tunisian government decided in August 2013 to ban the organization of Ansar al-Shari'a and classify it as a terrorist organization, Abu Ayyad was in secret after the events of the US Embassy and is believed to have managed to infiltrate into Libya at the time.

At the same time, he was prosecuted in Tunisia and sentenced to life imprisonment in connection with the formation of a military wing of Ansar al-Sharia. The fugitive leader threatened to launch a war against the "Troika" To discuss proceedings against him and his group.

French vehicles within the force of "Burhan" patrol north of the city of Timbuktu Finance (Reuters)

Conflicting news
In the period of infiltration outside Tunisia, Libya was the most suitable destination for the founder of the Tunisian Ansar al-Sharia organization, since it was a breeding ground for armed groups, including the Libyan Ansar al-Sharia organization, which was accused of involvement in the killing of US ambassador to Libya Christopher Stephens during violent protests in Benghazi. The film itself is offensive to Islam.

In the years following his departure from Tunisia, there were frequent reports of the death of Abu Ayyad. In the absence of confirmation of death from the Tunisian government or from the governments of other countries, many Tunisians did not believe what was rumored about the man's end.

It was the first time that the Tunisian leader was arrested by an American force in late 2013 in Misurata. In the next three years, he was frequently shot in the cities of Benghazi, Ajdabiya (east) and Sabrata (west) in US air strikes.

In July 2015, the New York Times quoted a US official as saying that Saifullah bin Hussein was killed in mid-June of the same year in an air strike targeting another al-Qaeda operative, Algerian Mokhtar Belmokhtar.

The announcement by the Abu Sayyaf-based advocacy group, Nasirat al-Islam and Muslims, was the killing of Abu Ayyad at a time when France-led Barrakan has intensified its operations against al-Qaeda-linked groups, particularly in Mali and Burkina Faso, in response to the operations of those groups that have expanded in both countries. Large numbers of victims.