Al-Qaida branch chief dies in crash

A spokesman for a radical Islamic group in northern Mali has confirmed that a leader of al-Qaida’s North African branch was killed in a car crash.

Sanda Abou Mohamed, a spokesman for Ansar Dine, which seized control of cities in northern Mali in April, said that Nabil Makhloufi, known by his alias Nabil Alqama, was killed in the accident near the city of Gao yesterday.