The deadly attack on a hotel in the Malian capital, Bamako, on Friday claimed by two radical Islamist groups has put veteran militant leader Mokhtar Belmokhtar back in the spotlight months after he was reported killed.

Belmokhtar, who is Algerian, has been a key figure for years in insurgencies across North Africa and the Saharan border region, but in June authorities in Libya said he had been killed by a U.S. airstrike there.

U.S. military officials said he was targeted, only for al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) to deny four days later that he was dead.