Somalia: Senior al-Shabaab leader killed in joint operation; two suicide bomb blasts rocked Beledweyne town

MOGADISHU— Somali government confirmed Monday that a top leader of the al-Shabaab terror group was killed in a joint operation by the Somali National Army (SNA) and international partner forces.

The Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism said Abdullahi Nadir who was one of the co-founders of the al-Shabaab terror group, who had a 3 million U.S. dollar bounty on his head, was killed Saturday in Haramka village in the Middle Jubba region.

Nadir held various positions within al-Shabaab which has engaged the Somali government in nearly daily terror attacks. The deceased was close to the former ringleader Ahmed Abdi Godane who was killed in 2014 as well as the current al-Shabaab leader Ahmed Diriye.

The government said Nadir was in the position to succeed Diriye, the current al-Shabaab leader.

Meanwhile, two suicide bomb blasts rocked Somalia’s town of Beledweyne, the provincial capital of the Hiran region on Monday, a local official confirmed.

Ali Jeyte Osman, governor of Hiran region said senior regional administration officials were among the casualties in the incident. “There are unspecified casualties and security forces are on the ground,” Jeyte told journalists in Beledweyne town.

No group has claimed responsibility for the latest attack although the militant group al-Shabaab often stages such attacks in the country.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK