WASHINGTON: The Pentagon confirmed yesterday that Ahmed Abdi Godane, a leader of the al Shabab Islamist group, was killed in a US airstrike in Somalia this week, calling it a “major symbolic and operational loss” for the Al Qaeda-affiliated militants.
“We have confirmed that Ahmed Godane, the co-founder of Al Shabab, has been killed,” Rear Admiral John Kirby, the Pentagon’s press secretary, said in a statement.
Since taking charge of Al Shabab in 2008, Godane had restyled the group as a global player in the Al Qaeda network, carrying out bombings and suicide attacks in Somalia and elsewhere in the region, including the September 21, 2013, attack on the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya, that killed 67 people.
Godane publicly claimed responsibility for the Westgate attack, saying it was revenge for Kenyan and Western involvement in Somalia and noting its proximity to the anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.
His death leaves a gap in Al Shabab’s leadership and was seen as posing the biggest challenge to the group’s unity since it emerged as a fighting force eight years ago.
Abdi Ayante, Director of the Heritage Institute for Policy Studies in the Somali capital of Mogadishu, said Godane’s death would be “a game changer in many ways for Al Shabab”.
US forces struck Godane’s encampment in south-central Somalia with Hellfire missiles and laser-guided munitions on Monday, but the Pentagon did not confirm his death until yesterday, saying it was still assessing the results of the air strike.
US President Barack Obama, attending a Nato summit in Wales, mentioned the confirmation to reporters, saying: “We released today the fact that we have killed the leader of al Shabaab in Somalia.”
Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud confirmed Godane’s killing, saying US forces conducted the airstrike with the full knowledge and agreement of Somalia’s government.
REUTERS
