An important al-Shabaab leader who had a $3 million US reward on his head was killed in a combined airstrike in southern Somalia, the Somali authorities reported on Monday.
Abdullahi Yare was murdered on October 1 in a drone attack carried out by the Somali army and foreign security partners close to the coastal town of Haramka, according to a statement from the ministry of information dated Sunday but published online on Monday.
It stated that “This commander… was the group’s chief preacher and one of the most infamous Shabab group members.”
The ministry referred to a significant decision-making body inside al-Shabaab as “the Shura council,” stating that “he was previous leader of the Shura council and the group’s director for finances.”
Yare, a co-founder of the al-Qaeda-affiliated organisation, was reportedly in position to succeed Ahmed Diriye, the organisation’s ill leader, as movement leader.
According to the ministry, “His removal is like a thorn plucked from Somalia as a nation.”
Yare was one of the seven authorities the US listed as being most sought in 2012. Washington promised to pay $3,000,000 to apprehend him.
The strike’s statement comes weeks after Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, Somalia’s newly elected president, threatened to wage all-out war on the militants in response to a succession of fatal assaults. They include a 21-person hotel siege that lasted 30 hours in the nation’s capital, Mogadishu.
Last month, Mohamud encouraged residents to avoid al-Shabaab-held regions while pledging to step up offensives against the militant group.
In the past, US forces have collaborated in counterterrorism operations with Somali and African Union forces, conducting numerous raids and drone attacks on al-Shabaab training facilities all throughout Somalia.
The largest hamlet on the route connecting Mogadishu to Beledweyne, a significant city on the border with Ethiopia, is Bulobarde. Last month, the US military claimed to have killed 27 Islamist combatants in the area during an airstrike.
It stated that the airstrike was conducted “at the request” of the government of Somalia.
Despite an African Union operation against the group, Al-Shabaab, which advocates a rigid interpretation of sharia law, has been engaged in a deadly uprising against the Mogadishu government for 15 years.
Although its fighters were driven out of the city in 2011, they still launch assaults against civilian, military, and governmental objectives.
A top Somali police officer was murdered in a bombing last week in the al-Shabaab-controlled hamlet of Bursa, some 30 kilometres (20 miles) north of Mogadishu. The organisation last week claimed credit for the attack.
