AL_SHABAB LEADER KILLED IN US AIR STRIKE

[sugar hill gang]

JUST HEARD THIS ON AL-JAZERA

US air raid kills Somali fighters








A US air raid has killed up to 30 people, including two senior leaders of al-Shabaab, Somalia's armed opposition group.

Four aircraft bombed the town of Dusamareb, 300km north of Mogadishu, early on Thursday.

Bob Prucha, a US military spokesman, told to the Associted Press news agency that US forces had attacked a "known al-Qaeda target".




Among the dead was Aden Hashi Eyrow, the military commander of al-Shabaab, the Union of Islamic Courts' (UIC) former military wing.

Mustafa Haji Abdinur, an AFP news agency correspondent in Mogadishu, told Al Jazeera: "This happened at 8am [05:00 GMT].







"The mujahidin [Islamic fighters] were inside the house when the attack occurred."

Somali 'liberation'

Mukhtar Robow Adumansur, an al-Shabaab spokesman, said: "It is true that infidel planes bombed Dusamareb. This was an unprovoked attack.

"Aden Hashi Eyrow and Sheikh Muhyadin Omar are the most important Shabaab members who were victims of this foreign aggression.


"The death of Eyrow and Omar will not stop the struggle for the supremacy of Allah and the liberation of the holy land of Somalia"

Mukhtar Robow Adumansur, an al-Shabaab spokesman

"The death of Eyrow and Omar will not stop the struggle for the supremacy of Allah and the liberation of the holy land of Somalia. We will continue the struggle until the Somali people are free."



Al Jazeera's Mohammed Adow said Eyrow was crucial to the al-Shabaab movement in Somalia.



"Aden Hashi Eyrow, who was in his early 30s, has been the mastermind of the al-Shabaab movement ... [and was] instrumental in the battles al-Shabaab have been waging against Ethiopian and Somali government troops in Mogadishu and outside the capital," he said.



Eyrow, as a member of one of Mogadishu's most powerful clans, was key in bringing influence to the movement, Adow said.



Somali intelligence sources said Eyrow was trained in Afghanistan as a mujahid and later, worked with the Taliban before Afghanistan was attacked by US-led forces.



He then returned to Somalia to establish al-Shabaab as the military wing of the Islamic courts.



'Terror organisation'



The Union of Islamic Courts ruled Somalia briefly, until they were ousted by Ethiopian troops backing the transitional Somali government, at the end of 2006.



Al-Shabaab broke from the Union of Islamic Courts when the latter entered into dialogue with the new government in Somalia. The armed group has fought against the Somali government and its Ethiopian allies since early 2007.


Both organisations are on a US list of "terrorist organisations".

The US military has repeatedly attacked targets in Somalia over the past year.

They fired at least one cruise missile at alleged al-Qaeda targets in southern Somalia in March.

In June, a US navy destroyer shelled suspected al-Qaeda members in the mountainous and remote northeastern areas of Somalia

[Arsenal_Man]

what are americans doing dere

[sugar hill gang]