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Thursday, September 18, 2014
The founder and leader of Somalia’s Islamist militant group linked to Al Qaeda, Al Shabab, was killed in a US air strike in the beginning of September. “We have confirmed that Ahmed Godane, the co-founder of al-Shabab, has been killed,” the Pentagon Press Secretary Rear Admiral John Kirby said in a statement on September 5.
The US hit a convoy of senior militant leaders on September 2, killing at least six people. The US State Department had listed Godane as one of the world’s top eight “terror” fugitives and analysts say his death marks a serious setback for Al Shabab.
The group has replaced Godane with Ahmed Omar, known as Abu Ubaidah. “Avenging the death of our scholars and leaders is a binding obligation on our shoulders that we will never relinquish nor forget no matter how long it takes,” the group said in a statement sent to Al Jazeera. Omar had previously been the third in line for leadership within Al Shabab, following Ismail Arale. However, Arale was sent to the US prison on Guantanamo Bay seven years ago.
Al Shabab retaliated by coordinating attacks that killed 12 people, including four Americans, as a result of a suicide bomber targeting African Union troops near the capital of Mogadishu. The bomber struck a vehicle loaded with explosives into an African Union convoy injuring 27 others. The Islamist group’s spokesman told Al Jazeera that the attack was in response for the death of Godane.
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