But al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and their allies know the area all too well.
Abou Zeid was a senior figure in al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).
The town is close to the Ifoghas mountains, where members of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) are thought to be hiding.
Kidal was until recently under the control of the Ansar Dine Islamist group, which has strong ties to al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).
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When the GSPC merged with al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), Mr Belmokhtar headed an AQIM battalion in the desert between Algeria and Mali.
The agency regularly receives statements from Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.
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"We knew this part of Mali was potentially the sanctuary of AQIM (al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb), and we weren't wrong, " he told Europe 1 radio from Mali.
Mujao is a splinter group of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), which formally announced its existence following the abduction of three aid workers in Algeria in October 2011.
Islamist militants of Ansar Dine and al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) have also destroyed half of the World Heritage tombs and mausoleums in the name of radical Islam.
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Belmokhtar fell out with the leadership of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) after the death of Osama Bin Laden and a struggle for dominance has been going on.
Chad had said its soldiers, fighting alongside the French troops, killed two top militant commanders, Abdelhamid Abou Zeid from al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, and veteran Islamist leader Mokhtar Belmokhtar.
The document, found by journalists in Timbuktu and published by a French newspaper, is said to contain advice by the head of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), Abdel Malek Droukdel.
Kidal, 1, 500km (930 miles) north-east of the capital Bamako, was until recently under the control of the Ansar Dine Islamist group, which has strong ties to al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).
Algerian Interior Minister Daho Ould Kablia said the kidnappers were Algerian and operating under orders from Mokhtar Belmokhtar, a senior commander of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) until late last year.
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Abou Zeid - whose death is still to be confirmed by DNA evidence - is said to be second-in-command of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), which is fighting foreign forces in Mali.
The famously remote city on the edge of the Sahara is now controlled by Ansar Dine, an Islamist group with links to a regional al-Qaeda affiliate - Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).
The MNLA is a former ally of the Islamist groups (including al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb) that have seized control of the north - but Islamists have now turned against the secular group.
This has followed the move by the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) to change its name to al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and begin a new campaign of violence in Algeria.
Algerian Interior Minister Daho Ould Kablia said the kidnappers were Algerian and operating under orders from Mokhtar Belmokhtar, who was a senior commander of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) until late last year.
Some reports suggest he joined the al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) group, which the French army is fighting in the area, but the same group held him prisoner for a few days in November.
It became clear that Ansar Dine forces were partnered by katibas (fighting units) from the other militant factions, al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (Aqim) and the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (Mujao).
Algerian police say it was organised by Mokhtar Belmokhtar, a militant leader who recently fell out with al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), which originated in Algeria but now operates throughout the Sahara and Sahel regions.
Many al-Qaeda recruits who originally travelled to Pakistan now reckon they should carry on the fight elsewhere, in loosely affiliated groups such as AQAP in Yemen, Somalia's al-Shabab or north Africa's al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).
In September 2006, thanks in part to matchmaking by Zarqawi, the GSPC rebranded itself as al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and introduced suicide tactics, attacking a series of foreign targets, including the United Nations office in Algiers.
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Yet there is speculation that it could be retaliation for France's recent intervention in Mali, where Islamist groups and members of al-Qaeda's North Africa branch - al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) - had taken control of the country's vast northern desert region.
Mr Kablia said that the kidnappers were Algerian and operating under orders from Mokhtar Belmokhtar, a senior commander of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) before late last year, when he set up his own armed group after apparently falling out with other leaders.
Algerian Interior Minister Daho Ould Kablia said that the kidnappers were Algerian and operating under orders from Mokhtar Belmokhtar, a senior commander of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) before late last year, when he set up his own armed group after apparently falling out with other leaders.
Mr Ag Intalla told AP news agency the IMA was linked to neither al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) nor the Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa (Mujao), two groups which control large swathes of northern Mali and are led by an Algerian and a Mauritanian respectively.
However, one of their main partners in this strategy, the Tuareg-led Islamist group Ansar Dine, which they hoped to talk into leaving the coalition with terrorist groups AQIM (Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb) and MUJAO (Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa) it had entered into, has betrayed them by taking part in the offensive against the Malian government.
Finally, those killed in the bombings were presumably Muslims, coreligionists of the perpetrators in the al-Qaeda Organization in the Islamic Maghreb.
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