US confirms drone strike killed al-Shabab chief

The Pentagon said on Wednesday that senior al-Shabab leader Tahlil Abdishakur had been killed when several Hellfire missiles fired from an unmanned drone struck a vehicle carrying him.

In a brief statement, the Pentagon said the strike by US forces took place on Monday near Saakow, 320 kilometers (210 miles) west of Somalia's capital Mogadishu. It said the operation was conducted on the basis of "actionable intelligence."

There was also a note on Twitter by the Pentagon's press secretary, Rear Admiral John Kirby.

The Pentagon said Abdishakur's death would "significantly impact" the group's ability to conduct attacks against the Somali government and its people, as well as US allies nearby.

Information gathered

Unnamed US and Somali officials had said on Tuesday that Abdishakur had been killed, but Washington military chiefs had said more information needed to be gathered. Another militant was also said to have died in the attack.

An official Pentagon statement at the time had said merely that a strike had taken place and that there had been no civilian casualties.

Somalia's National Intelligence and Security Agency said Abdishakur was head of al Shabab's Amniyat unit - believed to be responsible for several suicide attacks in Mogadishu.

Al-Shabab is an ultra-conservative Islamic militant group linked to the al Qaeda terrorist network, which aims to put Somali under an extreme form of Shariah law.

Despite being placed on the backfoot in an offensive involving African Union forces, the group has shown it still remains capable of carrying out deadly terrorist attacks, having recently targeted both the capital Mogadishu and locations in neighboring Kenya.

rc/ipj (AFP, AP, Reuters)