Ahmed Godane, the co-founder of the Somali militant group Al-Shabaab, was killed in a U.S. military operation, the Pentagon said Friday.
“The U.S. military undertook operations against Godane on Sept. 1, which led to his death. Removing Godane from the battlefield is a major symbolic and operational loss to Al-Shabaab,” said Pentagon press secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby.
On Monday, U.S. military conducted a strike in the African country targeting Godane, who pledged allegiance to al Qaeda. He has headed the Al-Shabaab as it has terrorized East Africa, killing Somali officials, aid workers and others in a spate of suicide bombings. Godane allegedly was behind 2013’s deadly siege of a Nairobi, Kenya, shopping mall.
Police and gunmen faced off Saturday at an upscale shopping mall in the Kenyan capital in an hourslong standoff that left at least 31 people dead, authorities said.
Several hours after the assault began, Al-Shabaab, an al-Qaeda-linked militant group based in Somalia, claimed responsibility for the bloodshed at the Westgate Mall in Nairobi.
