Dhusa mareeb, (insidesomalia.org) - the chap believed to be the head of Al-Shabab an active group in Somalia was killed in an overnight airstrike along with eight other people, an Islamic insurgent group said Thursday.

The spokesman for the Islamic al-Shabab militia, Sheik Muqtar Robow, said the strike killed Aden Hashi Ayro, his brother and seven others at his house in the central Somali town of Dusamareeb, some 540km north of the Somali capital Mogadishu, and scores of others were wounded.

"Our brother martyr Aden Hashi, has received what he was looking for death for the sake of Allah” and his time has came.

"This would not frighten us from continuing our holy war against Allah's foe we will be on the right way, that is why we are targeted.

I call for our holy fighters to remain sturdy in their position and keep up the jihad against the enemy of Allah," he added.

"We heard a huge explosion and when we ran out of our house we saw a ball of smoke and flames coming out of the house where one of the leaders of al-Shabab Aden Hashi Ayro was staying," said Gedi Ahmed a resident.

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.

In recent months it has briefly taken several towns, freeing prisoners and seizing weapons from government forces.

The insurgents usually withdraw after a few hours but continue to target Ethiopian and Somali forces in an Iraq-style insurgency.

The United States has repeatedly accused the Islamic group of harboring international terrorists linked to al-Qaida, which is allegedly responsible for the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

Fighting between government troops and the insurgents claimed thousands of lives last year and drove hundreds of thousands from their homes.

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