BEVERLY HILLS, March 09, (THEWILL) – A senior Al-Shabaab commander was killed in a recent US airstrike in Somalia, the director of US African Command (Africom) said Sunday.
“Bashir Mohamed Mahamoud was a senior operational leader responsible for exporting terror in Somalia as well as attacks into Kenya,” said Africom director Colonel Christopher Karns.
“He has been a senior al-Shabaab member for more than a decade.”
Bashir was killed in a February 22 airstrike, said Karns, describing him as an “individual (who) had a role in planning and directing terrorist operations in Somalia and on the Kenya border region”.
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Bashir also was suspected of having had a role in a January attack on a US-Kenyan military base in southeastern Kenya in which three Americans were killed, he added.
General Roger Cloutier, commander of US land forces in Africa, recently declared al-Shabaab to be “one of the biggest threats on the continent”.
Colonel Karns described al-Shabaab as “the largest and most kinetically active al-Qaeda network in the world”.
“What we are doing in Somalia, as part of an international effort, is meaningful basic security insurance for Africa and the longer-term security of America, the continent, and our international partners,” he added.
