Belmoktar's death has not yet been confirmed by French authorities, who identified Zeid's remains by DNA testing.
Chad has said that, along with Abdelhamid Abou Zeid, veteran Islamist leader Mokhtar Belmokhtar was also killed.
Abou Zeid had been promoted by the emir of AQIM -- and fellow Algerian -- Abdelmalek Droukdel.
"Physically, there is nothing remarkable about Abou Zeid, " he told Le Monde's Isabelle Mandraud after his release.
Earlier, the French newspaper Le Monde said DNA samples had made it possible to formally identify Abou Zeid.
Abou Zeid had a reputation for extreme brutality and thuggishness, while Belmoktar developed a reputation for strategic cunning.
Abou Zeid had a reputation for extreme brutality and thugishness, while Belmoktar developed a reputation for strategic cunning.
The death was in the same region where the Chadian army reported the deaths of Abou Zeid and Belmokhtar.
BBC: Islamist commander Abou Zeid's death in Mali 'probable'
France declared war on AQIM in 2010, after a 78-year-old aid worker taken hostage died in Mr. Zeid's custody.
Abou Zeid made several trips to Libya in 2011, according to one source familiar with intelligence from the area.
If Abou Zeid was indeed killed, the expectation is his group will retaliate.
Palestinian security sources identified the man as Muhammad Abu Zeid, 23, from Qalandiya.
However, the same activist confirmed Abou Zeid's death, saying he was killed in a French bombardment rather a Chadian attack.
BBC: Islamist commander Abou Zeid's death in Mali 'probable'
Abou Zeid's death casts further uncertainty over the fate of the French hostages his group is still believed to hold.
At the beginning of this year, Abou Zeid joined other Islamist forces making a push southward toward the capital Bamako.
Both Belmoktar and Abou Zeid made trips to Libya after the fall of Gadhafi and established a network of contacts there.
' Belmoktar also feuded with a rival commander - Abou Zeid - one of the most violent and radical figures in AQIM.
The Chadian army - fighting alongside French forces - has claimed it killed Abou Zeid and fellow militant Mokhtar Belmokhtar in recent fighting.
BBC: Islamist commander Abou Zeid's death in Mali 'probable'
The report of Belmoktar's death comes just one day after a U.S. official said Abou Zeid had been killed by French and Chadian forces.
The Chadian army fighting alongside French forces claimed earlier this month it had killed Abou Zeid and fellow militant Mokhtar Belmokhtar in fighting in February.
Mr. ABU-ZEID announced that, while nearly 20 more speakers had requested the floor, there was no more time, and he invited the panellists to respond.
The announcement follows Friday's declaration by Chadian President Idriss Deby that his troops had also killed Abdelhamid Abou Zeid, another top rebel leader in Mali.
Analysts say Algerian-born Abou Zeid became one of AQIM's top three military commanders in 2012 and led jihadist forces into the north Malian city of Timbuktu.
The head of France's joint chiefs of staff has said that it is "probable" that Islamist commander Abdelhamid Abou Zeid was killed in fighting in Mali.
BBC: Islamist commander Abou Zeid's death in Mali 'probable'
Ametetai is where Chadian troops said they killed top militant commander Abdelhamid Abou Zeid earlier this week, the BBC's Alex Duval Smith reports from the capital, Bamako.
Neither Belmoktar nor Abou Zeid sat at the top of AQIM's hierarchy in North Africa but they became the two most powerful al Qaeda figures in the sub-Sahara.
"The accuracy of tweets is a major concern, " said Zeid Barakat, co-founder of Flyberry Capital, a startup that uses high-speed strategies to trade commodity futures around news events.
One of the few Westerners to have encountered Abou Zeid was a French citizen, Pierre Camatte, who was abducted from a hotel in northern Mali in November 2009.
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.
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