CNN :
The US. military conducted an airstrike in southern Somalia on Sunday against a suspected militant leader, a US. military official told CNN.
The target was described by the official as a “senior leader” affiliated with al Qaeda and Al-Shabaab, al Qaeda’s affiliate in Somalia.
The United States has not yet been able to determine whether the target was killed, the official said.
Last October, the elite US. Navy SEAL Team Six aborted a pre-dawn raid in southern Somalia to capture Al-Shabaab leader Ikrima after an intense firefight prevented them from reliably taking him alive, a senior US. official told CNN at the time.
In a second raid that same weekend, members of the US. Army Delta Force captured Abu Anas al Libi, an al Qaeda operative wanted for his alleged role in the deadly 1998 bombings of two US. embassies in Africa, during an operation in the Libyan capital of Tripoli. The US. military official said Sunday’s strike involved missiles. No US. troops were on the ground.
Al-Shabaab, designated a terrorist organization by the United States, has a relationship with al Qaeda that goes back several years. In 2012, the two groups effectively merged, said CNN national security analyst Peter Bergen.
