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Mr. Belmokhtar's death was announced on state television in Chad, but has not been confirmed elsewhere.

"On Saturday, March 2, at noon, Chadian armed forces operating in northern Mali completely destroyed a terrorist base," Chad's armed forces spokesman, Gen. Zakaria Ngobongue, said in a statement on national television. "The toll included several dead terrorists, including their leader Mokhtar Belmokhtar."

Soldiers from Chad are fighting Islamist militants in Mali as part of an international force led by France that is seeking to oust the militants from northern Mali.

The French Defense Ministry spokesman, Col. Thierry Burkhard, said the ministry had no information on the claim by Chad and could not confirm it.

The January raid in Algeria was carried out in reprisal for the French intervention in Mali and for Algeria's support for the French war against Islamist militants in the region, Mr. Belmokhtar's spokesmen said at the time.

Mr. Belmokhtar, 40, was born in the Algerian desert city of Ghardaïa, 350 miles south of Algiers. Western officials say he had been active in smuggling, kidnapping and fighting for decades in the Sahel, which includes Mali, Mauritania and Niger. But with the attack on the Algerian gas plant, he suddenly became one of the best-known figures associated with the Islamist militancy sweeping the region and agitating capitals around the world.

The attack led to a four-day hostage crisis that was ended by an Algerian military raid. At least 37 foreign hostages were killed, including three Americans, and about 30 militants.

The United States envoy in Algiers, Henry S. Ensher, urged the Obama administration last week to make the pursuit of Mr. Belmokhtar a priority, administration officials said. He recommended that the Obama administration tell the Algerians that if they allowed the United States to fly unarmed drones over the border area of Algeria as well as over Mali, the Americans would share the information with the Algerian government.

There was broad agreement among policy makers and intelligence officials at a meeting of President Obama's top national security deputies at the White House last week that Mr. Belmokhtar and members of Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb should be aggressively pursued, according to one senior American official who insisted on anonymity so he could discuss internal deliberations. But no decision appeared to have been reached on whether to make a formal proposal to the Algerians.

Chad said Friday that its forces had killed Abdelhamid Abu Zeid, the most important commander in Al Qaeda's regional franchise, in combat in Mali.

The Algerian newspaper El Khabar reported that DNA  samples from the body presumed to be that of Mr. Abu Zeid had been sent to Algeria, where he was born and where some of his relatives live. Neither French nor Algerian officials have confirmed his death.

If the deaths of Mr. Belmokhtar and Mr. Abu Zeid are confirmed it would be a significant blow to the organization.