Sunshine/Lollipops
› Mokhtar Belmokhtar Killed? Chad Army Claims Algeria Hostage Planner Dead In Mali
And probably unrelated:
Mokhtar Belmokthar Could Be Added To Secret ‘Kill’ List, Move Driven By Senior Obama Officials from AP, February 9th.
and
U.S. sends troops to Niger for drone missions: President Obama says the 100-troop deployment will help France in its effort to drive militants out of northern Mali from the LA Times, February 22nd
› Push to Expand U.S. 'Kill List' | WSJ.com
Senior U.S. officials are pressing to mark for the killing or capture of the self-proclaimed mastermind of last month’s attack on an Algerian natural-gas facility that claimed the lives of 37 foreign hostages, including three Americans.
Adding the Algerian militant Mokhtar Belmokhtar to a U.S. targeted-killing list would represent a significant U.S. expansion into northwestern Africa, extending the reach of the U.S. program of drone strikes and other lethal counterterrorism operations, which have concentrated on Somalia, Yemen and Pakistan. [more]
