Al-Shabaab militants launched a major assault on the Westgate shopping centre in Nairobi in September, in which 70 people were killed. Photograph: AP
Killing a further sign of intensifying US campaign against al-Shabaab after attack on Westgate shopping centre in Nairobi
A US drone strike in Somalia has killed two senior members of the Islamist militant group al-Shabaab, including its top explosives expert, officials and residents have said.
The strike is a further sign of intensifying US military intervention against the al-Qaida affiliate in the wake of September's attack on the Westgate mall in Nairobi, Kenya, which left 70 people dead.
US officials confirmed there had been a counter-terrorism strike and said Ibrahim Ali, believed to be al-Shabaab's lead explosives expert, was among the dead, according to the Associated Press (AP) and Reuters. The New York Times quoted a US military official as saying Ali was known for his skill in building and using homemade bombs and suicide vests and had been tracked for a long time.
Witnesses to Monday's strike said the drone fired a missile at a car in the outskirts of Jilib town in the Middle Jubba region, some 75 miles north of the port of Kismayo in southern Somalia.
"This afternoon, I heard a big crash and saw a drone disappearing far into the sky. At least two militants died," Hassan Nur, a resident in the area, told Reuters. "I witnessed a Suzuki car burning, many al-Shabaab men came to the scene. I could see them carry the remains of two corpses. It was a heavy missile that the drone dropped. Many cars were driving ahead of me but the drone targeted this Suzuki."
An al-Shabaab member who gave his name as Abu Mohamed also told AP that one of those killed was the organisation's top explosives expert, known as Anta. A Somali intelligence official in Mogadishu said the attack took place as al-Shabaab members went to intervene in a clan dispute.
Earlier this month, US navy Seals raided a coastal Somali town in an attempt to capture a Kenyan al-Shabaab member but were forced to withdraw under heavy fire. The target was Abdulkadir Mohamed Abdulkadir, known as Ikrima, identified as the lead planner of a plot to attack Kenya's parliament building and the UN office in Nairobi in 2011 and 2012.
The heightened US activity comes as efforts by the UN-mandated African Union force, Amisom, appear to have stalled and al-Shabaab adapts to guerrilla warfare. Last week Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary general, said: "In the face of these threats, and in the absence of enablers and force multipliers that would have permitted a sustained offensive against al-Shabaab, the Somali national army and Amisom have now assumed a largely defensive, static posture."
The US army operates drones from bases in Dijbouti and in Arba Minch in southern Ethiopia and has reportedly carried out several strikes in recent years. Al-Shabaab said in January 2011 that a missile launched from a drone had killed Bilal el-Berjawi, a Lebanese fighter who held a British passport. Another missile killed four foreign militants south of Mogadishu in February 2012.
Al-Shabaab, which lost control of the capital in 2011, promised more attacks on Kenyan soil unless Kenya withdraws its troops from Somalia.
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