A U.S. drone strike in Somalia killed an al-Shabab militant, Sahal Iskudhuq, Sunday.
Iskudhuq was a senior member of the militant Islamist group. Abu Mohamed, an al-Shabab commander, told the Associated Press that Iskudhuq was previously in charge of kidnappings and ransom of foreigners for the group. But recently he had started working with the intelligence unit of the militant group. This means that he was responsible for choosing targets for bombings and helped to plan attacks.
Iskudhuq was a trusted friend of Ahmed Abdi Godane, the spiritual leader and top commander of the group.
Two U.S. military officials confirmed that they targeted the senior al-Shabab leader in Sunday's drone strike.
According to the officials, the strike took place in southern Somalia. Another U.S. official, on the condition of anonymity, said the operation took place in a remote area near Barawe, Somalia, reports Reuters
Last October, the U.S. Navy SEAL, Team Six, aborted a pre-dawn raid in Barawe to capture al-Shabaab leader Ikrima. An intense gun-fight forced them to abandon their mission of capturing him alive, a senior U.S. official told CNN then. Ikrima is supposedly the brains behind the attacks on neighboring country Kenya.
African Union forces have weakened al-Shabab in the past two years. In 2011, the troops threw the militant group out from Somalian capital Mogadishu. The group members are increasingly being targeted by the U.S. military.
The militant group has been causing insurgency in the country for seven-long years in a bid to install strict Islamist Sharia law. Their most recent attack was in a Kenyan shopping mall that killed at least 67 people.
