Tunisia’s special forces on Saturday killed Bilal al-Qubbi, a senior aide to the leader of the al Qaeda Organization in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), Abu Musab Abdel Wadud, in an ambush while on a mission to reorganize the al Qaeda branch in Tunisia after the strikes he received there, a government official told Reuters. In the last years.
Bilal al-Qibi, an Algerian, is “the right arm of Abdel-Wadood,” the source said, adding that he had joined the mountains since he was 15 years old before becoming close to al Qaeda leader.
In a statement, the Interior Ministry said the leader killed was on a mission to restructure the Oqba Ben Nafie battalion in Tunis, which is responsible for coordination between leaders of al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and its affiliates in Tunisia and Libya.
And the Oqba bin Nafie battalion, the local branch of the Al-Qaeda Organization in the Islamic Maghreb in Tunisia, and is surrounded by mountains in Kasserine near the Algerian border.
Tunisian forces succeeded in striking a strong blow to the Uqba bin Nafie battalion and the Jund al-Khalafah battalion of the Islamic State Organization.
Last year, Algerian special forces killed Algerian Murad al-Shayeb, the leader of Oqba Ben Nafie and several other leaders, putting the danger in relative decline, especially after attacks on the Bardo museum and a hotel in the resort of Sousse, in which dozens of Western tourists were killed.
Security conditions have improved dramatically since 2015, and Tunisia has arrested hundreds of militants and dismantled dozens of cells.