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NAIROBI, (insidesomalia.org)- Kenya — Aden Hashi Ayro, long identified as one of Al Qaeda’s top operatives in East Africa and the leader of the Islamist comeback in Somalia, was killed Thursday morning by an American airstrike, according to American and Somali officials.
Mr. Ayro was one of the most feared and notorious figures in Somalia, a short, wispy man believed to be in his 30s who had gone from lowly car washer to top terrorist suspect blamed for a string of atrocities, including ripping up an Italian graveyard, killing a BBC journalist and planning suicide attacks all across Somalia.
He was a military commander for the Shebab, an Islamist militia, which the American government recently classified as a terrorist group, saying it was linked to Al Qaeda.
Somalia officials said his death could be a turning point in defeating the Islamists, who have seized several towns in recent weeks, and in bringing peace to the country.
“This will definitely weaken the Shebab,” said Mohamed Aden, consul for Somalia’s embassy in Nairobi, the capital of neighboring Kenya. “This will help with reconciliation. You can’t imagine how many Somalis are saying, ‘Yes, this is the one.’ The reaction is so good.”
Missile attacks on terror suspects in the region have repeatedly proved unreliable, and human rights organizations have upbraided the American government for launching airstrikes inside Somalia that ended up killing civilians instead, which has happened several times in the past year.
In this case, Maj. Sherri Reed, a spokeswoman for the United States Central Command in Tampa, Fla., confirmed that the military had attacked "a known Al Qaeda target" in the central Somali town of Dhusamareb, but declined to give more details of the predawn strike.
“It’s significant,” said Major Reed, who said there was no evidence to suggest that the attack had resulted in any civilian casualties.
But an American military official in Washington, who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the operation, said that at least four Tomahawk cruise missiles fired from a Navy ship off the Somali coast had slammed into a small compound of single-story buildings in Dhusamareb, a well-known hide-out for Mr. Ayro and his associates. The official confirmed that Mr. Ayro was dead, along with several top lieutenants.
"This was in the works for some time," said the official. He said that American intelligence agents had been tracking Mr. Ayro for weeks, through a combination of communications intercepts, satellite imagery and other intelligence.
Around 3 a.m. Thursday, residents of Dhusamareb were jolted out of bed by several large explosions. According to witnesses and a spokesman for the Shebab, more than 10 people were killed, including Mr. Ayro, Mr. Ayro’s brother and several other high-ranking Shebab commanders.
Some witnesses said that as many as 30 people were dead and that residents were counting skulls to determine the precise number of casualties.
“Infidel planes bombed Dhusamareb," a Shebab spokesman, Mukhtar Ali Robow, told Reuters. "Two of our important people, including Ayro, were killed."
The American official said: “For the Horn of Africa, this is pretty significant. He’s certainly considered a leader in Al Qaeda’s effort there. This can be chalked up as a success.”
Dhusamareb, a town of about 100,000 people along one of the few highways in Somalia, is a stronghold of the Ayr clan, which Mr. Ayro belongs to. In the past few weeks, residents said, Islamist fighters had moved into the town, part of their strategy to wrest back control from the Transitional Federal Government, which is officially in charge of Somalia but wields little power.
In 2006, Mr. Ayro was one of the militia commanders of an Islamist movement that briefly ruled Somalia. That rule ended in December 2006 when Ethiopian troops, backed up by American intelligence and air power, ousted the Islamists.
Since then, American forces have launched several airstrikes inside Somalia, including one in January 2007 which was thought to have wounded Mr. Ayro.
In the past attacks, cruise missiles were often used, launched from American warships in the Indian Ocean.
Source New York Times
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