The US Forces Command in Africa (AFRICOM) announced that it carried out last Saturday a drone strike in Somalia;
resulted in the killing of a leader of the Al-Shabaab movement, which the Somali government said was Abdullahi Yari;
One of the founders of the movement.
Today, Monday, the announcement coincided with two bombings claimed by Al-Shabab in central Somalia, killing at least 9 people, including government officials.
"The terrorists launched two suicide attacks using explosives in Baldwin," a town located about 300 km north of the capital, Mogadishu, said the police chief in the "Hiran" region, Muhammad Moalem Ali.
He added that "9 people were killed, including the Minister of Health in Hirschapel State and a regional official in charge of financial affairs, and more than 10 others were wounded."
Al-Shabab, which has been fighting the Somali government for 15 years, claimed responsibility for the two bombings that targeted a government building, and said that they killed dozens, including officials and soldiers.
The US embassy in Somalia condemned - via Twitter - the Al-Shabab attack in Beledweyne, which "targeted members of the government working to bring peace to the region."
For its part, the US Africa Command said today, Monday - in a statement - that it carried out, on the first of this October, a drone strike against Al-Shabaab near the Jilib area, which is about 370 km southwest of Mogadishu.
The statement stated that "the leadership's initial assessment is that the raid killed a leader of the Al-Shabab movement, and did not result in the death or injury of any civilians." The statement did not specify the identity of the leader who was killed.
The Somali government has announced that it will launch an "all-out war" to eradicate Al-Shabaab (European - Archive)
The US statement came hours after the Somali government announced the killing of the leader, Abdullah Yari (one of the founders of Al-Shabab), in a drone strike on October 1, carried out by the Somali army and its "international security partners", according to a statement published by the Somali Ministry of Information.
And the Ministry of Information said - in the statement published late on Sunday - that with Yari's death, "a thorn has been removed from the throat of the Somali nation," noting that he was the attorney general of Al-Shabaab, and he was a candidate to replace the movement's sick leader, Ahmed Al-Dari.
The United States supports the Somali forces with personnel and drones, as well as the African Union peacekeeping mission.
Somali forces confirm that they have achieved successes in the past weeks with the participation of local self-defense groups in the fight against Al-Shabaab, but the movement continues to launch bloody attacks, including an attack last August on a hotel in the capital Mogadishu that lasted 30 hours, killing 21 people and wounding them. More than 100 others.
Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud - who was elected in mid-May after a political crisis - promised to wage a "total war" to eliminate al-Shabab.
On September 12, the president announced that Al-Shabaab would be targeted for future attacks, and called on residents to stay away from the movement's control areas.