|
The US air strike in Somalia on Monday, killed at least six members of the Islamic extremist group al-Shabaab including its leader who was in a car that was hit. It was not immediately clear as at Monday that the leader was killed until today when Penatgon officials confirmed it.
According to the Guardian, Ahmed Godane has no heir apparent as leader and analysts fear his death will spark further instability in the group.
The al-Shabaab leader was in one of two vehicles hit on Monday night by the strike, a commander of the Somali Islamic extremist group said, but he would not say whether Godane was among the six killed.
The vehicles were heading towards the coastal town of Barawe, al-Shabaab's main base, when they were struck, Abu Mohammed said. The Pentagon confirmed that US military forces had attacked the extremist network in Somalia on Monday.
The strike caused ground-shaking explosions, a witness said. Somali government and African Union forces heading to a town in the area heard what sounded like an earthquake as al-Shabaab's bases were hit, the governor of Somalia's Lower Shabelle region, Abdiqadir Mohamed Nor, said. "There was an airstrike near Sablale. We saw something," he said.
About this time last year al-Shabaab attacked the Westgate shopping centre in Nairobi, Kenya, killing at least 67 people, and the US targeted the planners of the bloody assault.
The US drone strike was launched as Godane left a meeting of the group's leadership, said a senior Somali intelligence official. Intelligence indicated Godane "might have been killed along with other militants", said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The attack took place 105 miles (170km) south of Mogadishu, at a site where al-Shabaab trains its fighters, he said.
Godane, also known as Mukhtar Abu Zubeyr, is al-Shabaab's spiritual leader under whose direction the Somali militants forged an alliance with al-Qaeda. In 2012 the US offered a reward of up to $7m (£4.2m) for information leading to his arrest.
After the US strike in a forest near Sablale district masked Islamist militants in the area arrested dozens of residents they suspected of spying for the US and searched nearby homes, a resident said.
"Mass arrests just started, everyone is being detained," said local resident Mohamed Ali. "They even searched nearby jungles and stopped the nomads transporting milk and grass to the towns for questioning."
The US has carried out several air strikes in Somalia in recent years. A US missile strike in January killed a high-ranking intelligence officer for al-Shabaab and last October a vehicle carrying senior members of the group was hit in a strike that killed al-Shabaab's top explosives expert.
The latest US action comes after Somali government forces regained control of a high-security prison in the capital that was attacked on Sunday. Seven heavily armed suspected al-Shabaab members had attempted to free other extremists held there.
Somali officials said all seven attackers, three government soldiers and two civilians were killed.
Published on 05/09/2014 16:51 Greenwich Mean Time
No comments:
Post a Comment