The man believed to be the head of al-Qaeda in Somalia has been killed in an airstrike along with eight other people, an Islamic insurgent group said on Thursday.
The spokesman for the Islamic al-Shabab militia, Sheik Muqtar Robow, said the overnight strike killed Aden Hashi Ayro, his brother, another commander and six others in the central Somali town of Dusamareeb. Six more people were wounded.
??ur brother martyr Aden Hashi, has received what he was looking for ??death for the sake of Allah ??at the hands of the United States,???Robow said by phone.
Somali government officials said Ayro trained in Afghanistan before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and heads al-Qaeda?? cell in Somalia.
He was a key figure in the al-Shabab movement, which aims to impose Islamic law and launches daily attacks on the shaky Somali government and its Ethiopian allies. He has also called for attacks on African peacekeepers in Somalia in a recording on an Islamic Web site.
Sheik Muhidin Mohamud Omar, who Robow described as ?? top commander??in the al-Shabab, was also killed.
A local elder, Ali Ahmed Said, said five people died inside the targeted house and the rest were in neighboring buildings. Earlier Robow had said all the casualties were in one house.
A resident, Nur Farah, said ??he bodies were beyond recognition, some them cut into pieces, and those wounded have been severely burnt.??br />
??f you look at the site of the attack, you would believe there has never been a house,??Nur Farah said.
It was not immediately clear who was behind the airstrike on the town 500km north of Mogadishu.
Over the past year, the US military has attacked several suspected extremists in Somalia.
Robow vowed the militia would keep fighting.
??hose who were guiding the attack, including [Somali] President Abdullahi Yusuf, we say to you if you feel happy with the death of our leader, you will regret it later ... If Ayro is dead, those he trained still remain strong and adamant to his way,??Robow said.
Al-Shabab is the armed wing of the Council of Islamic Courts movement. The US State Department considers al-Shabab a terrorist organization.
The Council of Islamic Courts seized control of much of southern Somalia, including the capital, Mogadishu, in 2006. But troops loyal to the UN-backed interim Somali government and the allied Ethiopian army drove the group from power in December 2006.
But the group in recent months has briefly taken several towns, freeing prisoners and seizing weapons from government forces. The insurgents usually withdraw after a few hours but continue to target Ethiopian and Somali forces.
The US has repeatedly accused the Islamic group of harboring terrorists linked to al-Qaeda.
The Philippines yesterday said its coast guard would acquire 40 fast patrol craft from France, with plans to deploy some of them in disputed areas of the South China Sea. The deal is the “largest so far single purchase” in Manila’s ongoing effort to modernize its coast guard, with deliveries set to start in four years, Philippine Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Ronnie Gil Gavan told a news conference. He declined to provide specifications for the vessels, which Manila said would cost 25.8 billion pesos (US$440 million), to be funded by development aid from the French government. He said some of the vessels would
CARGO PLANE VECTOR: Officials said they believe that attacks involving incendiary devices on planes was the work of Russia’s military intelligence agency the GRU Western security officials suspect Russian intelligence was behind a plot to put incendiary devices in packages on cargo planes headed to North America, including one that caught fire at a courier hub in Germany and another that ignited in a warehouse in England. Poland last month said that it had arrested four people suspected to be linked to a foreign intelligence operation that carried out sabotage and was searching for two others. Lithuania’s prosecutor general Nida Grunskiene on Tuesday said that there were an unspecified number of people detained in several countries, offering no elaboration. The events come as Western officials say
Hundreds of thousands of Guyana citizens living at home and abroad would receive a payout of about US$478 each after the country announced it was distributing its “mind-boggling” oil wealth. The grant of 100,000 Guyanese dollars would be available to any citizen of the South American country aged 18 and older with a valid passport or identification card. Guyanese citizens who normally live abroad would be eligible, but must be in Guyana to collect the payment. The payout was originally planned as a 200,000 Guyanese dollar grant for each household in the country, but was reframed after concerns that some citizens, including
A plane bringing Israeli soccer supporters home from Amsterdam landed at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport on Friday after a night of violence that Israeli and Dutch officials condemned as “anti-Semitic.” Dutch police said 62 arrests were made in connection with the violence, which erupted after a UEFA Europa League soccer tie between Amsterdam club Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv. Israeli flag carrier El Al said it was sending six planes to the Netherlands to bring the fans home, after the first flight carrying evacuees landed on Friday afternoon, the Israeli Airports Authority said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also ordered
RSS