US drone targets Al Shabaab head in Somalia
United States forces targeted a leader of the Al Shabaab militant group in an operation in southern Somalia this week, the Pentagon said late on Friday, a day after villagers reported a drone strike killed three members of the Al Qaeda-affiliated organisation.
US officials declined to name the target of the strike, but CBS News and other United States and African media said it was aimed at Adnan Garaar, a top Al Shabaab official suspected of masterminding the 2013 attack on Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi, killing 67.
The wide reporting of Garaar as the target prompted the United States Embassy in Nairobi to caution United States citizens to be aware of their safety given the news accounts of the drone strike.
CBS cited unnamed US officials as confirming Garaar was killed in the strike, which it said was carried out by a Predator drone using Hellfire missiles. United States defence officials speaking on the record declined to identify the target of the operation or give details, including whether he had been killed.
“We are currently assessing the results of this operation and will provide additional information as and when appropriate,” Army Colonel Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman, said.
Warren said the operation took place on Thursday about 240km west of Mogadishu near the town of Dinsoor. He said it was aimed at a “high-value target” but declined to name the individual or specify how it was carried out, other than to say no United States troops were on the ground in Somalia.
Dinsoor is not far from the village of Abaq Xaluul, where residents reported on Thursday that a drone attack about sunset killed three Al Shabaab members.
“I was on the outskirts of Abaq Xaluul village when a car drove past me and soon I heard the huge blast from a drone ahead of me,” resident Hussein Nur said by telephone.
“I saw the car and the three men on board completely burnt and then many armed Al Shabaab militants driving in cars reached the scene,” he said.
Other residents gave similar accounts. Al Shabaab had no immediate comment. The United States previously has targeted senior leaders of the group with drone strikes.
Last year, an unmanned United States aircraft killed Al Shabaab leader Ahmed Godane, forcing the group to appoint a new chief. Last month, a US missile strike killed Yusef Dheeq, blamed for masterminding attacks at home and abroad.
Separately in Isiolo, an attack by suspected Somali gunmen on a convoy of a Kenyan state governor killed three police officers and a regional elder, a regional official said on Saturday.
Gunmen attacked the convoy of Ali Roba, governor of Mandera in northern Kenya, on Friday. That region is often targeted by members of the militant Al Shabaab group from neighbouring Somalia.
Al Shabaab said on Friday it carried out an attack in the area against a military convoy and said four soldiers were killed. The Kenyan army said only the governor’s convoy was attacked, not any military ones, but gave no precise death toll.
Mandera County Commissioner Alex Nkoyo said on Saturday that three police officers and a regional elder were killed.
Al Shabaab has launched many attacks inside Kenya, saying it will continue until Kenyan forces are withdrawn from Somalia, where they are fighting alongside other African forces against the group