Two top Islamists, originally from the U.S. and the U.K., were killed in Somalia on Thursday after a fallout with al-Shabab, according to BBC.
Omar Hammami, also known as al-Amriki or "the American," and Osama al-Britani died in an early morning attack in a Mogadishu village southwest of the capital.
Hammami was an American citizen from Alabama and climbed the ranks of the Al Qaeda-linked group after moving to Somalia in 2006. In March, the U.S. State Department put out a $5 million reward for any information leading to Hammami's capture or conviction.
The second militant killed, al-Britani, was a British citizen.
Both men had been hiding from the militants ever since leaving the group earlier this year.
A senior official of al-Shabab, in addition to residents in the area of the attack, confirmed the fight and deaths.
"Al-Amriki and two other fighters, one of them a foreigner, have been killed near Bardhere," one resident told BBC.
Hammami and al-Britani were close allies of Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, a veteran Islamist militant who left al-Shabab this year as well. He is currently in custody in the U.K.
According to Mohamed Mohamed, a Somali analyst for BBC, al-Shabab has been going after allies of Aweys ever since he left the group. The former militant leader was seen as less extreme than al-Shabab leader Ahmed Abdi Godane.
James Culveyhouse, a classmate of Hammami's who grew up with him in Alabama, said he became radicalized after a trip to Syria as a teenager. As he got older, he became more orthodox than his father, who is a Sunni Muslim.
On Wednesday, top Islamic scholars issued a fatwa condemning the militant group, saying they have no place in Islam.
While the fatwa may influence some opinion, it is unlikely to convince al-Shabab to change their ways according to Mohamed Abdullahi, a Somali analyst.
"[It says] you cannot give them sanctuary, you cannot support them, you have to report their presence and you have to assist international security agencies so the fatwa includes a security element of community policing against al-Shabab," he said.
Abdullahi added that efforts to combat the presence of militant organizations need to demonstrate options for those seeking to leave the group.
"There must be another parallel programme to ensure that those young men who joined for economic reasons, for instance, are provided with employment or opportunities," he said.
