Somali Terrorist Leader Killed in Airstrike

Good news this morning, Aden Hashi Ayro the leader of al-Shabaab, a terrorist group linked to al Qaida has been killed in an airstrike along with 30 other terrorists. Aden Hashi Ayro trained in Afghanistan with al Qaida before 2001, and is responsible for linking al-Shabaab to al-Qaida. He is also implicated in the murder of an Italian nun back in 2006.

Al-Shabaab, also known as the Mujahideen Youth Movement, was added to the US State Deparment's Specially Designated Terrorist Group list not too long ago.

Regular readers will know that we've been trying to shut down al-Shabaab's website which is hosted in the US. But I'll take this news instead of shutting down their website (but that would be nice too). Reuters

MOGADISHU (Reuters) - U.S. war planes killed an Islamist rebel said to be al Qaeda's leader in Somalia and as many as 30 other people on Thursday in Washington's biggest blow against an insurgency raging since 2007.

The rebels said Aden Hashi Ayro -- who led al Shabaab militants blamed for attacks on government troops and their Ethiopian allies -- died in the first major success for a string of U.S. air-strikes on Somali insurgents in the last year.

"Infidel planes bombed Dusamareb," Shabaab spokesman Mukhtar Ali Robow told Reuters by phone, referring to a town in central Somalia, where body parts lay strewn round a wrecked house.

HAHAHAHA....

"Two of our important people, including Ayro, were killed."

The death of the Afghanistan-trained militant is likely to bolster the Western-backed Somali government's efforts to stem a rebellion that has been gaining ground. But it is sure to enrage Ayro's fellow fighters, who say they are waging a jihad to eject Ethiopian troops.

One local elder said 30 bodies had been recovered from the ruins.

Ayro was a key figure on the ground masterminding the Islamists' Iraq-style insurgency against allied Somali-Ethiopian troops. The violence had intensified in recent weeks, with scores of deaths in Mogadishu and a series of hit-and-run raids by the Islamists on towns outside the capital.

"His elimination is very important," said M.J. Gohel, head of the Asia-Pacific Foundation, a security think-tank in London.

"(But) the penetration by al Qaeda in Somalia is so great that he will be replaced. This is a setback (for the militants), and it will be felt, but it's not a mortal blow."

Related Posts:

al-Shabaab's Website Back Up
Somali Terrorists Defiant of US Terror Listing
US State Department's Newest Specially Designated Terrorist Group
Kataaib.net