A US air strike killed an Islamist commander thought to be al-Qaeda's top man in Somalia, the insurgents and witnesses said today.
Aden Hashi Ayro, who led al-Shabaab militants blamed for near daily attacks on government troops and their Ethiopian allies, died in the latest of several U.S. bombings in recent months to have targeted Somali rebel leaders.
"It is true, infidel planes bombed Dusamareb," another senior Shabaab commander, Mukhtar Ali Robow, told reporters by telephone, referring to a small town in central Somalia.
"Two of our important people, including Ayro, were killed."
Residents said other Shabaab fighters and at least one civilian were killed in the pre-dawn air strike.
"I could see pieces of human bodies lying outside the house," said one local man who asked not to be named. "It was difficult to go near because of heavily armed Islamists guarding the area."
Amina Warsame, another witness, said residents were woken at around 2 a.m. (Wednesday 2300 GMT) by two huge blasts.
"When we came out, we saw a home in the neighborhood entirely destroyed ... We counted four planes flying over us," she said.
In late February, Washington officially designated the al-Shabaab as a terrorist organization, saying it had close ties to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda.
Security and intelligence sources say Ayro trained in assassination and insurgency tactics in Afghanistan in the late 1990s.
In his 30s, he has been in hiding since his hardline sharia courts group was ousted from Mogadishu at the start of 2007.
In rare taped comments released in November, the Islamist commander ordered his fighters to attack African Union peacekeepers based in the coastal capital.
Civilians in the city have borne the brunt of fighting between the rebels and allied Somali-Ethiopian forces. A local rights group says clashes in Mogadishu killed some 6,500 residents last year alone.
Reuters