Somali, US forces kill Shabaad commander with $10 million bounty

NAIROBI: Somali troops and US forces this week killed a senior commander of the Al-Shabaab militant group with a $10 million American bounty on his head, the African nation´s information minister said.

The al-Qaeda-linked Islamists have led a 16-year insurgency against the fragile central government and control swathes of rural Somalia.

Maalim Ayman, leader of the Al-Shabaab unit Jaysh Ayman, was wanted by the United States over an attack on an air base in Kenya in January 2020 that left three Americans dead.

“Maalim Ayman, a senior leader of Al Shabaab, was confirmed to have been killed in a joint operation by the Somali National Army with assistance from US forces on December 17th,” Information Minister Daud Aweis said on X on Thursday.