Mokhtar Belmokhtar, the one-eyed terrorist reported to have been killed in a US airstrike in Libya on Monday, was an al-Qaida veteran and the mastermind behind a devastating attack on an Algerian gas plant in 2013.

Branded variously as "The Uncatchable", "The One-Eyed" and "Mr Marlboro", he had been condemned to death by Algeria twice and reported killed in Mali at least once before the US - which had placed a $5 million bounty on his head - targeted him in Monday's strike.

As well as the Algerian gas plant siege, he personally supervised the operational plans for twin car bombings in Niger that killed at least 20 people that same year, according to a spokesman for his group.

Belmokhtar was born in 1972 in the Algerian desert city of Ghardaia.

In a rare 2007 interview, he said he was drawn away from home by his fascination with the exploits of the mujahedeen fighting the Soviet invaders of Afghanistan, whom he joined in 1991 when he was 19.

It was in Afghanistan that he claims to have lost his eye when it was hit by shrapnel, and where he had his first contact with al-Qaida.

Nicknamed Lawar (The One-Eyed), he returned to Algeria in 1993, a year after the government sparked civil war by canceling an election the Islamic Salvation Front was poised to win.

AFP