Abdelhamid Abou Zeid (1965-25 February 2013) was a leader of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb from Algeria. During the Malian Civil War, he oversaw the implementation of sharia law in Timbuktu, Mali and the destruction of Sufi shrines.
Biography[]
Abdelhamid Abou Zeid was born in 1965 in Algeria to a family of Sunni Muslims, and he joined al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. AQIM Emir Abu Musab Abdel Wadoud decided to promote Abou Zeid to become one of the three commanders of AQIM during the Malian Civil War, and from 2008 to 2013 he kidnapped over 20 westerners. When al-Qaeda took over the Malian city of Timbuktu, Abou Zeid had historic Sufi shrines destroyed and used amputations as punishment, and he implemented sharia law in Northern Mali. As a result of these incidents, France and Chad dispatched troops to intervene in the civil war, and Abou Zeid was killed on 25 February 2013 in the Tigargara mountainous region of Mali in the rescue of two French hostages.