Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) has chosen a new leader to replace Abdelmalek Droukdel, who was killed in June by French forces, the SITE monitoring group reported Saturday.
Algerian Abu Obaida Yusuf al-Annabi, the head of AQIM's "Council of Dignitaries", was named as Droukdel's successor, SITE said.
Al-Annabi has been on the American "international terrorist" blacklist since September 2015, according to the Counter Extremism Project.
He has regularly appeared in the group's propaganda videos.
Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb emerged from a group started in the late 1990s by Algerian radicals, who in 2007 pledged allegiance to Osama Bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network.
The group has claimed responsibility for numerous attacks on troops and civilians across the Sahel region, including a 2016 attack on an upmarket hotel and restaurant in Burkina Faso that killed 30 people, mainly Westerners.
