American Airstrike in Somalia

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Key Militant in Somalia Killed in U.S. Attack

By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN and ERIC SCHMITT

Published: May 2, 2008

NAIROBI, Kenya — Aden Hashi Ayro, long identified as one of Al

Qaeda's top operatives in East Africa and the leader of the Islamist

comeback in Somalia, was killed Thursday morning by an American

airstrike, according to American and Somali officials.

Mr. Ayro was one of the most feared and notorious figures in Somalia,

a short, wispy man believed to be in his 30s who had gone from lowly

car washer to top terrorist suspect blamed for a string of

atrocities, including ripping up an Italian graveyard, killing a BBC

journalist and planning suicide attacks all across Somalia.

He was a military commander for the Shebab, an Islamist militia which

the American government recently classified as a terrorist group,

saying it was linked to Al Qaeda.

Somalia officials said his death could be a key turning point in

defeating the Islamists, who have seized several towns in recent

weeks, and in bringing peace to the country.

" This will definitely weaken the Shebab, " said Mohamed Aden, consul

for Somalia's embassy in Nairobi, the capital of neighboring

Kenya. " This will help with reconciliation. You can't imagine how

many Somalis are saying, `Yes, this is the one.' The reaction is so

good. "

Maj. Sherri , a spokeswoman for the United States Central Command

in Tampa, Fla., confirmed that the military had attacked " a known Al

Qaeda target " in the central Somalia town of Dhusamareb, but declined

to give more details of the pre-dawn strike.

" It's significant, " said Major , who said there was no evidence

to suggest there were any civilian casualties from the attack.

But an American military official in Washington, who requested

anonymity because of the sensitivity of the operation, said that at

least four Tomahawk cruise missiles fired from a Navy ship off the

Somali coast had slammed into a small compound of single-story

buildings in Dhusamareb, a well-known hideout for Mr. Ayro and his

associates. The official confirmed Mr. Ayro was dead, along with

several top lieutenants.

" This was in the works for some time, " said the official. He said

that American intelligence agents had been tracking Mr. Ayro for

weeks, through a combination of communications intercepts, satellite

imagery and other intelligence.

Human rights organizations have upbraided the American government for

launching air strikes against terrorist suspects inside Somalia and

killing civilians instead, which has happened several times in the

past year. But this time the missiles seemed to find their mark.

Around 3 a.m. Thursday morning, residents of Dhusamareb were jolted

out of bed by several large explosions. According to witnesses and a

spokesman for the Shebab, more than 10 people were killed, including

Mr. Ayro, Mr. Ayro's brother and several other high-ranking Shebab

commanders.

Some witnesses said as many as 30 people were dead and that residents

were counting skulls to determine the precise number of casualties.

" Infidel planes bombed Dhusamareb, " a Shebab spokesman, Mukhtar Ali

Robow, told Reuters. " Two of our important people, including Ayro,

were killed. "

The American official said: " For the Horn of Africa, this is pretty

significant. He's certainly considered a leader in Al Qaeda's effort

there. This can be chalked up as a success. "

Dhusamareb, a town of about 100,000 people along one of the few

highways in Somalia, is a stronghold of the Ayr clan, which Mr. Ayro

belongs to. In the past few weeks, residents said, Islamist fighters

had moved into the town, part of their strategy to wrest back control

from the Transitional Federal Government, which is officially in

charge of Somalia but wields little power on the ground.

In 2006, Mr. Ayro was one of the militia commanders of an Islamist

movement that briefly ruled Somalia. That rule ended in December 2006

when Ethiopian troops, backed up by American intelligence and air

power, ousted the Islamists.

Since then, American forces have launched several airstrikes inside

Somalia, including one in January 2007 which was thought to have

wounded Mr. Ayro.

In the past attacks, cruise missiles were often used, launched from

American war ships in the Indian Ocean.

American officials have said they have been given permission by

Somalia's government to attack terrorist suspects on Somali soil.

American officials have accused Mr. Ayro of protecting wanted Qaeda

members, including some of the men thought to have planned the

bombings of American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998.

Mr. Ayro's life story is a bit sketchy. According to Somali

intelligence agents, he dropped out of school at a young age to wash

cars and join one of the street-gang type militias that was fighting

for control of Somalia in the early 1990s after the central

government collapsed.

He became friends with a leader of his clan, Hassan Dahir Aweys, who

arranged for him to go to Afghanistan to fight with the Taliban

against American forces in 2001. He then returned to Mogadishu and

trained fellow fighters in explosives, according to the International

Crisis Group, a research organization that specializes in analyzing

conflicts.

In January 2005, Mr. Ayro desecrated the graves of dozens of Italians

who had been buried in Mogadishu decades ago, when Somalia was an

Italian colony. Mr. Ayro was essentially disowned by his clan after

that. But his militant activities only increased, and in February

2005 he was blamed for gunning down a BBC news producer outside her

hotel in Mogadishu.

Mr. Ayro had recently gone to Dhusamareb with a band of his fighters

to help set up a local administration. But clan elders rejected him,

said Mohammed Uluso, a leader of the Ayr clan, because the

elders " didn't want to mix up their legitimate goals with something

suspicious. " That might have been part of Mr. Ayro's undoing, because

Somali officials said that people in Dhusamareb provided American

forces with up-to-the-minute intelligence on Mr. Ayro's movements.

Mr. Uluso said Mr. Ayro was small and thin and looked like " a high

school student, not this big guy the Americans were after. " Mr. Uluso

said he thinks the Shebab will continue to be a potent resistance

force even after Mr. Ayro's death because many young Somalis see the

Shebab as a " heroic cause " in terms of standing up to the Americans.

(Shebab is the Arabic word for youth.)

" The Shebab won't just disappear, " Mr. Uluso said. " But now that the

hunt for Ayro is over, at least people will get their freedom back.

So many people were hurt and oppressed in the effort to get him. "

Gettleman reported from Nairobi, Kenya, and Schmitt

reported from Washington.