Al Shabab leader killed in US drone attack

A US drone strike has killed an al Shabab leader linked to the 2013 Kenyan shopping centre massacre in which 67 people were killed.

The Pentagon has confirmed that airstrikes last week against the al-Shabab extremist group were successful, and that Adan Garar, a senior member of the group, had been killed in a drone strike on his vehicle.

The strike, carried out last Thursday as Garar traveled near Diinsoor, Somalia, "dealt another significant blow" to al-Shabab and killed Garar, who is believed to have planned the 2013 attack on the Westgate mall in Kenya, the defence department said.

For nearly a decade the United States has been trying to fight al-Shabab through economic sanctions, missile strikes and commando raids. Last year, the Obama administration stepped up its efforts, and in September an American drone strike killed the leader the group, Ahmed Abdi Godane, one of the most wanted men in Africa.

At the time president Barack Obama drew a direct link between the killing of Godane, who turned an obscure local militant group into one of the most fearsome franchises of al-Qaeda in the world, and American plans to go after the leaders of the Islamic State in Iraq. The Pentagon press secretary at the time, Rear Adm. John Kirby, called the death of Godane "a major symbolic and operational loss" to al-Shabab.

NYT