By AHMED MOHAMED
Associated Press
NOUAKCHOTT, Mauritania (AP) — A senior military official in Mauritania’s army says soldiers killed a leader of al-Qaida’s North Africa affiliate during an air raid this week.
The colonel who spoke on the condition of anonymity following military protocol said late Friday that Tiyib Ould Sidi Ali has been eliminated. He said that Ali was a leader for al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb and was wanted for his role in a failed bombing attempt on the capital in February, and an attack against the Israeli Embassy in Mauritania in 2008.
Mauritania’s army said its soldiers conducted an air raid in the Wagadou Forest just across the border in the nation of Mali on Thursday because AQIM, which is based there, was preparing to mount an attack on Mauritanian soil.
AQIM is an Algerian-born terrorist group that joined with al-Qaida in 2006 and has become a security threat in northwestern Africa.
(This version Corrects that Tiyib is first name, Ali is last.)
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