Al Qaeda chief reported among dead in U.S. strike

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — The U.S. military killed a man thought to be the head of al Qaeda in Somalia and 10 others in an air strike overnight, an Islamic insurgent group said yesterday.

The U.S. military confirmed an attack on a suspected al Qaeda target but did not identify the target.

Aden Hashi Ayro was killed when the air strike destroyed his house in the central Somali town of Dusamareeb, about 300 miles north of Mogadishu, said Sheik Muqtar Robow, a spokesman for the Islamic al-Shabab militia.

Another commander and seven others were also killed, Sheik Robow said. Six others were wounded, two of whom later died, said resident Abdullahi Nor.

“Our brother martyr Aden Hashi, has received what he was looking for — death for the sake of Allah — at the hands of the United States,” Sheik Robow said by phone.

Capt. Jamie Graybeal, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command, confirmed there was a U.S. air strike early yesterday in the vicinity of Dusamareeb. Another U.S. military spokesman, Bob Prucha, said the attack was against a “known al Qaeda target and militia leader in Somalia.” Both declined to provide further details.

But another U.S. defense official confirmed that the military launched a missile strike targeting Ayro at about 3 a.m. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the record.

Over the past year, the U.S. military has attacked several suspected extremists in Somalia, most recently in March when the U.S. Navy fired at least one missile into a southern Somali town.

Somali government officials have said Ayro trained in Afghanistan before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and is the head of al Qaeda’s cell in Somalia.

He was a key figure in the al-Shabab movement, which aims to impose Islamic law and launches daily attacks on the shaky Somali government and their Ethiopian allies. Ayro also recently called for attacks on African peacekeepers in Somalia in a recording on an Islamic Web site.

Sheik Muhidin Mohamud Omar, who Sheik Robow described as “a top commander” in the Al-Shabab, was also killed in yesterday’s attack.

Al-Shabab is the armed wing of the Council of Islamic Courts movement. The State Department considers al-Shabab a terrorist organization.

The Council of Islamic Courts seized control of much of southern Somalia, including the capital, Mogadishu, in 2006. But troops loyal to the U.N.-backed interim Somali government and the allied Ethiopian army drove the group from power that December.

The United States has repeatedly accused the Islamic group of harboring international terrorists linked to al Qaeda, believed to be responsible for the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed more than 200 people.

In March, the U.S. Navy fired at least one missile into a southern town targeting Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, a Kenyan suspected in the embassy bombings.