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U.S. military launches drone strike on al-Shabab leader in Somalia
[WASHINGTONPOST] The U.S. military carried out a drone strike in Somalia Thursday against a senior member of the al-Shabaab
... Somalia's version of the Taliban, functioning as an arm of al-Qaeda...
 myrmidon group who has overseen attacks resulting in the deaths of at least three U.S. citizens, Pentagon officials said Friday.

Hassan Ali Dhoore, the al-Shabaab figure, also was a member al-Qaeda, Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook said in a statement. Dhoore was part of al-Shabaab’s security and intelligence section, and was involved in plotting more attacks against Americans in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, Cook said.

"While we are still assessing the results of this operation, removing Dhoore from the battlefield would be a significant blow to al-Shabaab’s operational planning and ability to conduct attacks against the government of the Federal Republic of Somalia, its citizens, U.S. partners in the region, and against Americans abroad," Cook’s statement said.

[U.S. Arclight airstrike kills more than 150 at Somalia terrorist camp, military says]

A defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity
... for fear of being murdered...
 because of the sensitive nature of the operation, said the strike occurred about 20 miles from the town of Jilib, southwest of Mogadishu. The Arclight airstrike hit a vehicle in which Dhoore was traveling with two other members of al-Shabaab in the early evening.

The defense official said the U.S. military has been "watching him off and on for a long time," and that the Somali government was involved in sharing information that led to the attack. It marks the second time in a month that the Pentagon acknowledged carrying out Arclight airstrikes in Somalia. In the last one, a series of strikes were launched on an al-Shabaab training camp in Raso, about 120 miles north of Mogadishu.

Cook said Dhoore played a direct role in the Dec. 25, 2014, attack on Mogadishu International Airport that killed several troops with the African Union
...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful...
 mission in Somalia and one American. He also was "directly responsible" for a March 27, 2015, attack on the Maka al-Mukarram Hotel in Mogadishu, which killed 15 people including one Somali-American, the Pentagon said.

Posted by: Fred 2016-04-02
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=451075