Friday, June 24, 2011
Sheikh Hassan Yacqub, the spokesman for al Shabaab in Kismayu, told an insurgent-run radio station two unidentified helicopters had attacked the group's troops while on patrol and that some fighters were wounded in an exchange of fire.
"We heard heavy bombing and gunfire including the sound of anti-aircraft weapons but we don't know the specific area nor the casualties caused," a resident who gave his name as Ibrahim told Reuters from Kismayu.
"I was told that many al Shabaab injured were brought to the hospital but I didn't see it with my own eyes," he said.
Another resident who lives about 5 km from Qandal said there were huge blasts. An Islamist commander said that several insurgents had been wounded in the attack, which he blamed on the United States and France.
In May 2008, a U.S. airstrike in central Somalia killed al Shabaab leader Aden Hashi Ayro, who was believed to be al Qaeda's top man in the lawless country.
Somali police killed east Africa's most wanted al Qaeda operative, Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, earlier this month at a checkpoint in the capital Mogadishu.
Mohammed was reputed to run al Qaeda in east Africa, operating in Somalia and evading capture for over a decade after being accused of playing a lead role in the 1998 U.S. embassy attacks that killed 240 people in Kenya and Tanzania. (Additional reporting by Sahra Abdi in Nairobi; Writing by David Clarke; Editing by Alistair Lyon) (For more Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit:af.reuters.com
Source: Reuters