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| Mokhtar Belmokhtar charged over Algeria gas plant siege | |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| US prosecutors have charged militant Islamist leader Mokhtar Belmokhtar over a deadly attack on an Algerian gas plant in January. | US prosecutors have charged militant Islamist leader Mokhtar Belmokhtar over a deadly attack on an Algerian gas plant in January. |
| He faces eight charges including conspiracy to provide support to al-Qaeda, kidnapping and conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction. | He faces eight charges including conspiracy to provide support to al-Qaeda, kidnapping and conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction. |
| Gunmen took local and foreign workers hostage at the Tigantourine plant. | |
| The Algerian army stormed the complex four days later, but 29 insurgents and at least 37 hostages were killed. | The Algerian army stormed the complex four days later, but 29 insurgents and at least 37 hostages were killed. |
| At least three of the hostages were Americans, it emerged a few days after the siege ended. | At least three of the hostages were Americans, it emerged a few days after the siege ended. |
| "Belmokhtar brought terror and blood to these innocent people and now we intend to bring Belmokhtar to justice," said Preet Bharara, US attorney for the Southern District of New York, in a statement. | |
| US authorities are also offering a $5m (£3.2m) reward for information leading to Belmokhtar's arrest. | |
| The court papers unveiled on Friday said Belmokhtar had appeared in an online video the day after the siege ended, claiming he had carried out the attack on behalf of al-Qaeda. | |
| George Venizelos, head of the FBI's New York office, said the charges "describe a fanatical jihadist leading an extremist vanguard of an extremist ideology''. | |
| Belmokhtar is a former leading figure in al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) but is now believed to head a group of militants known variously as the Signed-in-Blood Battalion, the Masked Men Brigade and the Khaled Abu al-Abbas Brigade. |