French forces in the northern Gao region carried out an operation alongside Malian troops which led to the "neutralisation of about a dozen members of an armed terrorist group, including Ahmed el Tilemsi," said army spokesman Gilles Jaron.
Malian Defence Minister Ba N'Dao specified in a statement that "six other terrorists were killed and three taken prisoner" in the operation.
With a string of kidnappings of westerners and attacks under his belt, Tilemsi was described by a terrorism expert as a "big fish" and right-hand man of notorious Algerian jihadist Mokhtar Belmokhtar.
"We've really hit Al-Murabitoun hard," said Jaron.
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Tilemsi has a long history with jihadist groups operating in the Sahel region, having been a member of Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) before becoming one of the founding members of the Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO), a splinter group aimed at spreading jihad throughout the region.
MUJAO was one of a number of Islamist groups that occupied northern Mali last year, imposing a brutal interpretation of Islamic sharia law characterised by amputations, beatings and executions, before being ousted by the French-led military intervention.