County News
Al shabaab supreme leader, Abu Ubeyda is dead
Al shabaab Supreme leader, Abu Ubeyda, (Courtesy)
The Somali National Army (SNA) Radio has reported the death of the supreme leader of the Al-Shabaab jihadists Ahmed Dirie Abu Ubeyda.
The broadcaster run by the military, reported that Abdi Godane, also known us Abu Ubeyda died in Jilib District in Middle Shabelle, about 410km south of Mogadishu.
The report could not be independently confirmed, but the local media outlets have been reporting about the ill-health of Abu Ubeyda and the infighting within the jihadist group over his succession.
The United States has now confirmed that the Al shabaab leader was indeed killed in an airstrike .
A brief statement from the pentagon says that Godane’s killing is “both a symbolic and strategic loss to Al qaeda’s biggest ally in Africa.”
The US is known to have placed $6 million bounty on the head of the Al-Shabaab leader.
Godane was Al shabaab’s spiritual leader, and one of the masterminds of the September 21st 2013 attack.
Abu Ubeyda became the leader of the Al-Shabaab in December 2014, three months after Ahmed Abdi Godane alias Sheikh Mukhtar Abu Zubayr (his predecessor) was killed in a US drone attack.
The Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Shabaab emerged as the armed wing of the Islamic Courts Union (ICU), which later splintered into several factions after its defeat in 2006 by the Somali Transitional Federal Government (TFG) and the Ethiopian military.
Also killed in that airstrike was Abdukadir Mohamed Abdukadir, more widely known as Ikrima, an Al shabaab commander who was deeply involved in the planning of the Westgate attack.
The rag tag militants denied the alleged death of its supreme leader.
The Al-Qaeda linked group affiliated website quoted a senior commander saying that Abu Ubeyda is alive despite a death announcement by the Somalia National Army.
