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STORY: French military on Friday released video showing fierce fighting taking place in the mountains of northern Mali on February 26 as part of the operation to clear Islamist militants out of their remaining strongholds.
One of al Qaeda's most feared commanders in Africa, Abdelhamid Abou Zeid, has been killed by Chadian forces in northern Mali, Chad's President Idriss Deby said on Friday.
French officials said they could not confirm the report.
The reported death of Abou Zeid, who has earned AQIM tens of millions of dollars with a spate of kidnappings of Westerners in the Sahara over the last five years, would be a significant but far from fatal blow to the group.
France is six weeks into an offensive to clear Islamist fighters from Mali's north, which Paris said was in danger of becoming a springboard for attacks on the region and the West.