Military strike in Somalia targeted Al-Shabaab leader, U.S. officials say
By Barbara Starr
A U.S. military strike in southern Somalia Sunday was targeting Ahmed Abdi Godane, the leader of Al-Shabaab, the Somali-based group with ties to al Qaeda, according to three US officials.
A drone operated by the U.S. Defense Department fired a Hellfire missile at a vehicle killing those inside, the officials said. But as of Tuesday, the Pentagon was unable to confirm whether Godane was killed, although he was the intended target.
The military was authorized to try to kill Godane because of current intelligence indicating he posed an "imminent threat" against U.S. interests in the region, one official said.
"We have to be able to prove he was in the process of planning additional attacks," the official said. The official would not elaborate on what the intelligence might be.
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@natlsecuritycnn on Twitter
The US is making new enemies, every day.
China needs to protect the US from the US and others. The US Military needs to shut down shop.
Quite true Kjtfgg, quite true indeed!
Another field day for the right-wing thugs in Washington now that those filthy creeps who operate those ungodly drones managed to slaughter an Al Shabaab suspect named Ahmed Abdi Godane like a pig in a pen! These murders make all of us Americans look bad to the rest of the world and those butchers who murdered Godane sorely need to be indicted and tried for cold blooded murder!!!
It would be nice to know more details on the structure and roots of the african radicals and the vectors used by this flavor of extremist. This area is going to be the next 'middle east'. Islamic gihad has been targeting africa for some years now. China is pumping ridiculous amounts of money into it too even going as far as hiring some of our most elite private forces to project their interests. Just the same as on 9-11 I had to study an entire culture to understand it , this is another case of the same. (as is russia, every flavor of gihadi is unique it seems )