Kenyan Alshabab Top Commander and mastermind of the Garissa University attack Gamadheere has allegedly been killed in a US Drone attack in Juungal between Bardhere and Buur Hajje Somalia.
Gamadheere had a Sh20M bounty on his head. Reports of his death are yet to be confirmed.
The man was the alleged mastermind of the terror attack on Garissa University in Kenya that has left at least 15 people dead and scores more injured.
He is a former teacher at a Madrassa Islamic school who rose to become one of al-Shabaab’s most senior lieutenants.
Reports by BBC said that that two senior commanders from the Islamist militant group were today killed in a drone strike in south-west Somalia.
Several loud blasts were heard in the town of Bardere at dawn and the bodies were found later, they said.
However there are no independent reports to verify the reports. Bardere is one of the few towns still controlled by al-Shabab.
Meanwhile reports by AFP said that Missiles were fired from an unidentified military aircraft striking al-Shabab targets in southern Somalia early on Thursday causing casualties, sources said.
According to traditional elders near Bardhere town in the southern Gedo region, at least two missiles struck vehicles believed to be carrying commanders of the Somali-led Al-Qaeda affiliate.
“We heard two big explosions and the information we are getting indicates that vehicles were targeted close to a Shebab military base,” said Abdiwahab Ali, an elder at a village close to the scene of the attack.
“Village residents are telling us a missile fired from an aircraft struck a vehicle and a nearby military camp belonging to Shebab,” said Hassan Gesle, another elder.
Immediately after the attack the mobile phone network in Bardhere was cut off, making it impossible to reach Shebab commanders for comment.
Regional government officials confirmed the air strike but were unable to give details of who was targeted.
Ahmed Bare, Somali military officer in nearby Elwaq town, said that Shebab commanders have been leaving Bardhere, one of the few towns still held by the militants, ahead of a planned ground assault by Somali troops.
Last month Somalia’s security agency claimed it carried out a night raid in Bardhere killing an unspecified number of Shebab commanders.
Also last month a Shebab assault on an African Union base in Lego left dozens of Burundian soldiers dead.
Neither the Somali military nor the African Union force in Somalia have military aircraft, but the US has in recent years launched numerous drone strikes against Shebab leaders and said it was responsible for a September drone strike that killed the group’s emir Ahmed Abdi Godane.
