{"id":9078,"date":"2014-09-02T08:48:02","date_gmt":"2014-09-02T12:48:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/?p=9078"},"modified":"2014-09-02T08:48:40","modified_gmt":"2014-09-02T12:48:40","slug":"us-drones-target-al-shabab-leader-in-somalia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/9078","title":{"rendered":"US drones target al-Shabab leader in Somalia"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"<\/a>-Associated Press- (Mogadishu)-US military forces have attacked the Islamic extremist al-Shabab network in an operation in Somalia, the Pentagon said, in a strike a Somali official said targeted the group\u2019s fugitive leader.<\/p>\n

Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm John Kirby said the US was assessing the results and would provide more information when appropriate. No further details were available.<\/p>\n

A senior Somali intelligence official said a US drone targeted al-Shabab leader Ahmed Abdi Godane on Monday as he left a meeting of the group\u2019s top leaders. Godane, also known as Mukhtar Abu Zubeyr, is the group\u2019s spiritual leader under whose direction the Somali militants forged an alliance with al-Qaida.<\/p>\n

The Somali official, speaking on condition of anonymity since he was not authorised to speak to the media, said intelligence indicated Godane \u201cmight have been killed along with other militants\u201d.<\/p>\n

The official said the attack took place in a forest near Sablale district, 105 miles (170km) south of Mogadishu, where al-Shabab trains its fighters.<\/p>\n

The governor of Somalia\u2019s Lower Shabelle region, Abdiqadir Mohamed Nor, told the Associated Press that as government and African Union forces were heading to a town in Sablale district they heard what sounded like an earthquake as drones struck al-Shabab bases.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was an air strike near Sablale. We saw something,\u201d Nor said.<\/p>\n

The US has carried out several air strikes in Somalia recent years. A US missile strike in January killed a high-ranking intelligence officer for al-Shabab, and last October a vehicle carrying senior members of the group was hit in a strike that killed al-Shabab\u2019s top explosives expert.<\/p>\n

The latest US action came after Somalia\u2019s government forces regained control of a high-security prison in the capital that was attacked on Sunday by seven heavily armed suspected Islamic militants who attempted to free other extremists held there. The Pentagon statement did not indicate whether the US action was related to the prison attack.<\/p>\n

Somali officials said all seven attackers, three government soldiers and two civilians were killed. Mogadishu\u2019s Godka Jilacow prison is an interrogation\u00a0center\u00a0for Somalia\u2019s intelligence agency, and many suspected militants are believed to be held in underground cells there.<\/p>\n

Al-Shabab claimed responsibility for the attack that shattered a period of calm in Mogadishu after two decades of chaotic violence. The attack started when a suicide car bomber detonated an explosives-laden vehicle at the gate of the prison, followed by gunmen who fought their way into the prison.<\/p>\n

It was al-Shabab gunmen who attacked the Westgate Mall in Nairobi, Kenya, with guns and grenades last September, killing at least 67 people. Al-Shabab had threatened retaliation against Kenya for sending troops into Somalia against the extremists. Godane said the attack was carried out in retaliation for the west\u2019s support for Kenya\u2019s Somalia intervention and the \u201cinterest of their oil companies\u201d.<\/p>\n

Al-Shabab is now mostly active in Somalia\u2019s rural regions after being ousted from the capital by African Union forces in 2011. But the group is still able to launch lethal attacks \u2013 often involving militants on suicide missions \u2013 within Mogadishu, the seat of government.<\/p>\n

Somali military officials last week launched a military operation to oust al-Shabab from its last remaining bases in the southern parts of Somalia. However, on Saturday. the town of Bulomarer, about 70 miles (110km) south of Mogadishu, was seized from militants after hours of fighting.<\/p>\n

(AFP photo)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

-Associated Press- (Mogadishu)-US military forces have attacked the Islamic extremist al-Shabab network in an operation in Somalia, the Pentagon said, in a strike a Somali official said targeted the group\u2019s fugitive leader. Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm John Kirby said the…<\/span> Read more ›<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":72,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[44,2860,1],"tags":[3776,1570,3779,3782,3788,3773,3789,3777,369,3771,3781,3786,3784,3772,3785,3778,64,3770,3780,3774,3783,3787,3775,50],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9078"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/72"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9078"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9078\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}