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US airstrike targets al-Shabab leader

December 30, 2014

The United States targeted an unnamed top al-Shabab leader with an airstrike in Somalia. The strike follows an attack on an African Union base last week by the supposedly weakened terrorist group.

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al-Shabaab Kämpfer in Somalia
Image: picture alliance/AP Photo/Sheikh Nor

The U.S. military launched their airstrike late on Monday night, the Pentagon confirmed. Al-Shabab is an al-Qaida linked jihadist organization seeking to topple the government in Mogadishu and establish their own rule based on Sharia law.

"The strike took place in the vicinity of Saakow, Somalia," US Defense Department spokesman Mark Wright said in a statement according to Reuters news agency. "At this time, we do not assess there to be any civilian or bystander casualties. We are assessing the results of the operation."

While the Department of Defense would not name the target, a senior official speaking anonymously to the Associated Press said that it was not Ahmad Umar, who took over leadership of the Islamist group in September after former al-Shabab head Ahmed Abdi Godane was killed in a similar airstrike carried out by the United States.

Although analysts thought that the death of Godane had seriously weakened the terrorist organization, just last week the group killed three African Union (AU) soldiers and a civilian contractor in a suicide attack on the main AU military base near Mogadishu airport. The AU's Mission in Somalia reported that five militants were killed and three captured following the attack.

Shortly thereafter, another senior al-Shabab leader with a $3-million (2.45 million euro) bounty on his head, Zakariya Ismail Ahmed Hersi, surrendered to Somali police for unknown reasons, though infighting in the group as a result of Godane's death is the suspected cause.

The Somali government has been battling al-Shabab for almost ten years. In 2009 and 2010, the jihadists controlled most of southern and central Somalia and even parts of Mogadishu, but was beaten back in 2011 with the help of some 22,000 African Union soldiers who remain stationed in the unstable region.

es/rg (AP, dpa)