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Pentagon: Airstrike kills terror leader

Pentagon: Airstrike kills terror leader
Posted at 9:48 AM, Dec 07, 2015
and last updated 2015-12-07 12:48:50-05

WASHINGTON (AP) — A Pentagon official says the U.S. killed a senior leader of the al-Shabab extremist group in an airstrike last week in Somalia.

The Dec. 2 strike that killed three was announced Monday by Pentagon spokesman Navy Capt. Jeff Davis.

Davis identified the targeted al-Shabab senior leader as Abdirahman Sandhere (ab-deera-mon sond-heer) and said he is also known as Ukash.

Davis also said the U.S. has confirmed that a Nov. 13 airstrike killed a senior Islamic State leader in Libya known as Abu Nabil. U.S. officials had said shortly after the attack that Nabil likely had died. By coincidence, that airstrike happened just as the Paris terrorist attacks were underway.

Al-Shabab, an Islamic extremist group, is responsible for numerous attacks in east Africa, particularly Kenya.