US Forces Conduct Air Strikes on Islamist Group Al-Shabaab in Somalia
US military forces attacked the Islamic extremist al-Shabaab network in an operation in Somalia on Monday, the Pentagon said, in a strike a Somali official said targeted the group’s fugitive leader.
Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. John Kirby said the US was assessing the results and would provide more information when appropriate.
A senior Somali intelligence official said a US drone targeted al-Shabaab leader Ahmed Abdi Godane as he left a meeting of the group’s top leaders. Godane, also known as Mukhtar Abu Zubeyr, is the group’s spiritual leader under whose direction the Somali militants forged an alliance with al-Qaeda.
The Somali official said intelligence indicated Godane “might have been killed along with other militants.” The official said the attack took place in a forest near Sablale district, 105 miles south of Mogadishu, where al-Shabaab trains its fighters.
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