Al-Qaeda's Abou Zeid killed in Mali

A senior al-Qaeda militant has been killed in northern Mali, Chadian President Idriss Deby has said.

He said the country's forces killed Abdelhamid Abou Zeid during clashes in the remote region.

He is said to be second-in-command of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, which is fighting foreign forces in Mali.

The Algerian national is accused of killing two Western hostages - Briton Edwin Dyer in 2009 and Frenchman Michel Germaneau the following year.

BBC West Africa correspondent Thomas Fessy says that, if confirmed, his death will immediately raise questions over the state of several French hostages who are widely believed to have been in Abou Zeid's custody.

In January France sent some 3,500 troops to northern Mali to oust various Islamist militant groups who had seized a vast area of the Sahara desert.

Chad is one of several African countries to have supported the French operation.