U.S. missiles destroyed the house of Aden Hashi Ayro in the central Somali town of Dusamareeb on Thursday in the first major success in a string of such U.S. military attacks over the past year.
Ayro’s assassination comes amid escalating fighting and a spiraling humanitarian crisis in the country that has killed thousands of civilians and driven hundreds of thousands from their homes in the past year.
“This will not deter us from prosecuting our holy war against Allah’s enemy,” Sheik Muqtar Robow, a spokesman for the al-Shabab militia that Ayro led, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.
“We know our enemy. It is impossible to hit missiles on our people and we let your citizens come to our country,” he said.
“We warn them to stay out of our country,” he added.
The warning also applies to citizens of countries friendly to the United States and to neighboring Ethiopia, which has sent troops to fight Somalia’s Islamist insurgency, he said.
Ten other people were killed in the attack, five of them civilians who were sleeping in houses near Ayro’s, according to local elder Ahmed Mumin Jama. Four civilians also were being treated for wounds, he said.
Robow said another senior al-Shabab leader, Sheik Muhidin Mohamud Omar, also was killed in the attack.
Al-Shabab is the armed wing of the Council of Islamic Courts movement, which seized control of much of southern Somalia, including the capital, Mogadishu, in 2006. Ethiopian troops allied with Somalia’s shaky, U.N.-backed interim government invaded to drive the movement from power in December 2006.
Since then, al-Shabab has pursued an Iraqi-style insurgency, with roadside and suicide bombings and assassinations. In recent months, the militia 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.
The State Department considers al-Shabab a terrorist organization.
Analysts say Thursday’s attack could torpedo U.N.-backed peace talks scheduled to start May 10, which were slated to be more inclusive than previous rounds and offered a slim hope of bringing together the disparate groups in the armed opposition, including some Islamists.
Al-Qaeda leader in Somalia killed in air strike
MOGADISHU (May 1) – The man believed to be the head of al-Qaida 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, about 300 miles north of Mogadishu. Six more people were wounded.
“Our brother martyr Aden Hashi, has received what he was looking for — death for the sake of Allah — at the hands of the United States,” Robow told The Associated Press by phone.
“This would not deter us from continuing our holy war against Allah’s enemy; we will be on the right way, that is why we are targeted. I call for our holy fighters to remain strong in their position and keep up the jihad,” he added.
It was not immediately clear who was behind the airstrike.
Over the past year, the U.S. military has attacked several suspected extremists in Somalia, most recently in March when the U.S. Navy fired at least one missile into a southern Somali town.
Somali government officials have said Ayro trained in Afghanistan before the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks and is the head of al-Qaida’s cell in Somalia.
He was a key figure in the al-Shabab movement, which aims to impose Islamic law and launches daily attacks on the shaky Somali government and their Ethiopian allies. Ayro also recently called for attacks on African peacekeepers in Somalia in a recording on an Islamic Web site.
Local resident Nur Geele said the attack occurred around 3 a.m.
“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,” he said.
Al-Shabab is the armed wing of the Council of Islamic Courts movement. The State Department considers al-Shabab a terrorist organization.
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.
Ethiopia’s archenemy, Eritrea, has offered assistance to the group, and it is re-emerging. 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.
America is concerned Somalia is a breeding ground for terrorist groups, particularly after the Islamic militants briefly gained control of the south and Osama bin Laden declared his support for them.
Fighting between government troops and the insurgents claimed thousands of lives last year and drove hundreds of thousands from their homes.
Forces under Zenawi command kill 13 civilians in Somalia
MOGADISHU (Apr 30) – Ethiopian troops allied to Somalia’s shaky government opened fire on civilians in a street in southwestern Somalia, killing 13 on Wednesday after an explosion there killed two soldiers, witnesses said.
Witness Mohamud Ahmed Nur said an explosion apparently caused by a remote-controlled land mine killed the two Ethiopian troops, who were patrolling the town of Baidoa.
The soldiers, he said, then opened fire in all directions, killing at least 10 civilian passers-by outright.
Mohamed Hussein Diriye, a doctor at the town’s main hospital, said three more people died later of their injuries and that seven others were still being treated at the hospital, he said.
“It was a horrific scene, blood scattered everywhere,” said witness Jamal Haji. “I saw the dead bodies of at least 10 people lying in the middle of the road.”
Baidoa is 250 kilometers (155 miles) southwest of the capital, Mogadishu, and is the headquarters for the Somali parliament. Several senior government officials also live there.
Islamic insurgents, whom the Ethiopians drove out of the capital in 2006, are furious about the presence of those troops on their soil. They have stepped up attacks across the country in recent months, seizing towns and then voluntarily withdrawing, in a direct challenge to the government, which is struggling to exert its control.
The insurgents receive support from Ethiopia’s archenemy Eritrea and have strong support among sections of the population. The government is seen as weak, ineffectual and corrupt.
Somalia has been mired in violence since warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991 and then turned their heavily armed supporters on one another. The Horn of Africa nation is flooded with weapons and divided among warring clans.
Meanwhile in central Somalia, a BBC report said a regional commander of the transitional government’s army was killed in an insurgent attack on his house in the town of Beled Weyne.
The attacks come as diplomats intensified efforts to get the interim government officials and the opposition alliance, which includes the Islamists, to hold talks.
Representatives of the International Contact Group for Somalia led by the US and Norway are meeting in Oslo, where Prime Minister Hassan Nur Hussein and representatives of the Asmara-based alliance are expected.
Somalia has not had a functioning government since 1991 and the UN has warned of a serious humanitarian crisis in the country following a rise in insecurity.
