Moktar Belmoktar was the mastermind behind an attack in January on a natural gas facility in Algeria that killed dozens of foreigners including several Americans.

NOUAKCHOTT, Mauritania (AP) — The one-eyed terror leader Moktar Belmoktar, considered by many to be the most dangerous man in the Sahara, is now officially joining forces with a Mali-basedjihadist group and vowing to support Islamists in Egypt, according to a statement posted Thursday.

The announcement of the alliance known as “the Mourabitounes” formalizes an emerging union between Belmoktar’s followers and the group known as MUJAO, or Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa. Their comments were carried by the Nouakchott Information Agency, a Mauritanian site previously used by Belmoktar to convey messages.

The two groups said they had decided “to confront the Zionist campaign against Islam and Muslims” by uniting jihadists from the Nile to the Atlantic, spanning all of North Africa. They also spoke of their desire to target French interests in retaliation for the French-led military intervention of Mali.

The militants also urged fellow jihadists to “cooperate against the secular forces who reject all that is Islamist and who have forced the eviction of our Muslim brothers in Egypt.”

Egypt’s Mohammed Morsi, an Islamist who became the country’s first freely elected president, was unseated in a July 3 coup.

Belmoktar, an Algerian believed to be in his 40s, is best known for masterminding the January attack on a natural gas plant in southeastern Algeria in retaliation for the French-led military intervention in Mali.

In the attack and in the subsequent rescue attempt, some three dozen foreigners were killed inside the complex. Belmoktar claimed responsibility within hours, immediately catapulting him into the ranks of international terrorists.