The US military targeted a senior leader in the Amniyat, Shabaab’s intelligence and security service, in an airstrike south of the Somali capital of Mogadishu two days ago. It is unclear if the target of the airstrike was killed or if he survived.
The US launched an airstrike against Adan Garaar, “a top official” in the Amniyat, Voice of America reported. The strike targeted and destroyed Garaar’s vehicle as it traveled near the town of Bardhere, Somali officials and sources close to Shabaab told VOA.
The US military confirmed in a briefing yesterday that it launched “a counterterrorism operation” on a road south of Mogadishu. “No boots on the ground” were involved in the operations, Colonel Steve Warren said, indicating that US aircraft were used. “Warren described the target as high value,” the US military stated, but did not name the target of the strike or indicate if he was killed.
Garaar is the third senior leader in the Amniyat that has been targeted by the US since the end of 2014.
The US has targeted and killed several top leaders of the Amniyat in the recent past. On Jan. 31, 2015, the US killed Yusuf Dheeq, the previous emir of the Amniyat. Dheeq had replaced Tahlil Abdishakur, who was killed in an airstrike in Somalia on Dec. 29, 2014.
Shabaab’s leadership has taken some significant hits since the summer of 2014. In addition to losing Dheeg and Abdishakur, the US killed Ahmed Abdi Godane, the previous leader of Shabaab who was also known as Sheikh Mukhtar Abu Zubayr, in another airstrike on Sept. 1, 2014. Several of the group’s leaders and commanders were also killed along with Godane, who was also known as Sheikh Mukhtar Abu Zubayr.
The Amniyat is a key organization within Shabaab. It is instrumental in executing suicide attacks inside Somalia as well as in Kenya and other African nations, conducting assassinations, providing logistics and support for operations, and integrating the group’s local and regional commands. A top Amniyat official known as “Hassan” is said to have received direct instructions from al Qaeda emir Ayman al Zawahiri on training operatives in Africa. [See LWJ report, UN warned of Shabaab ally’s ‘new and more complex operations’ in Kenya, and Threat Matrix report, Zawahiri’s man in Shabaab’s ‘secret service’.]
Shabaab has conducted several major attacks outside of Somalia, including the twin suicide bombings at two cafes in Kampala, Uganda in 2010; the suicide assault and siege of the Westgate Mall in Nairobi, Kenya in 2013, and a dual suicide attack that targeted western troops in Djibouti in 2014.
The Amniyat is also responsible for protecting Shabaab’s emir, and in the past has carried out executions for the group’s leader. Among those killed by the Amniyat is Omar Hammami, the American Shabaab commander who clashed with the group’s leadership.
Shabaab is al Qaeda’s branch in Somalia and greater East Africa. The group openly swore allegiance to al Qaeda in 2011 and again in 2012, but hid its ties to the group for years prior to the announcement. [See LWJ reports, Al Qaeda advises Shabaab to keep low profile on links, attack US interests; Shabaab formally joins al Qaeda; Somalia’s Shabaab vows allegiance to new al Qaeda emir Zawahiri; and Bin Laden told Shabaab to hide al Qaeda ties.]
Shabaab’s new emir, Sheikh Ahmad Umar, reaffirmed the group’s allegiance to al Qaeda upon taking command of the group.
“The leadership also renews its pledge of allegiance to al Qaeda and its leader, Sheikh Ayman al Zawahiri, may Allah protect him,” Umar said.
