Terror team Deadly reunion of al-Qaeda and the One-Eyed Sheikh

The attack on the Hotel Splendid and a café represented the cementing of a reunion of two of the region’s most feared terrorist groups and a foray into fresh territory.

Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), a regional franchise whose roots are in Algeria, has claimed responsibility for the attack, which it said was carried out by fighters of alMourabitoun group which is populated mainly by Tuaregs and Arabs from northern Mali.

AlMourabitoun is run by Mokhtar Belmokhtar, an Algerian jihadist who fought Soviet forces in Afghanistan in the 1980s, sustaining the injury that has led to his nickname the One-Eyed Sheikh of the Sahara.

His picture became known around the world after he coordinated the capture in 2013 of the In Amenas gas plant in southern Algeria in an operation which resulted in the deaths of 38 hostages including six Britons.

Belmokhtar co-created alMourabitoun in 2012 after falling out with fellow AQIM commanders. Since then, both the Chadians and Libyans said they had killed Belmokhtar in air strikes, but in May 2013, he reappeared to claim responsibility for a string of suicide bomb attacks on a uranium mine and military base in Niger.

Some African terrorist groups including Nigeria’s Boko Haram have responded to overtures from the Islamic State in the Levant (Isil) but Belmokhtar is understood to remain loyal to al-Qaeda’s Ayman Al Zawahiri and has rejected any suggestion of an affiliation with Isil.

In November 2015, alMourabitoun was identified as the actor behind a mass hostagetaking at the Radisson Blu hotel in Mali’s capital Bamako. The attack signalled a rapprochement with AQIM, which stated the attack had been a joint endeavour.