Reports indicate that a Mauritanian national Fawaz Ould Ahmed was indicted in New York on Saturday for his role in 2015 attacks in Mali targeting Westerners that left more than two dozen people dead.
Ould, a Mauritanian insurgent also known as “Ibrahim 10,” is accused of having committed the March 2015 attack on the La Terrasse bar and restaurant, in which five people died.
Additionally, he is suspected of planning the murder of 13 and 20 persons, respectively, in attacks on the Radisson Blu Hotel in Bamako in November and the Hotel Byblos in Sevare in August.
The frightening attacks were among the first in Mali, which has been besieged by a deadly insurgency since 2012, to specifically target bars and eateries that cater to tourists.
Europeans, UN employees, and an American who worked in international development named Anita Ashok Datar were also among the victims.
The Justice Department reported that Ould Ahmed was accused with several terrorism-related felonies in the United States.
Charges for Datar’s murder, support for terrorist groups Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and Al-Murabitoun, and the unauthorised use of explosives are all included in the six-count indictment. A Malian court executed the now 44-year-old and two other militants who took part in the assaults in 2020.
Ould Ahmed testified throughout the trial that he had attacked La Terrasse in retaliation for drawings of the Prophet Mohammed published by the French publication Charlie Hebdo.
He was taken into custody by US officials on Friday and transported from Mali to New York, where he is currently being held in jail pending trial.
“Today, we have made clear that the United States is steadfast in our commitment to bring to justice those who commit barbaric acts of terrorism targeting innocent victims,” said US Attorney Breon Peace, in the statement.
Born in Nouakchott in the late 1970s, Ould Ahmed was radicalised after the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, allegedly becoming lieutenant to the notorious one-eyed Algerian insurgent Mokhtar Belmokhtar.