Saturday October 27, 2018
Somalia's national security agency says a senior official with the al-Shabab extremist group has been killed, a day after the U.S. military announced an airstrike against al-Shabab in the same area.
Saturday's statement says the unnamed official in charge of collecting revenue was killed on Thursday in Kunyo Barrow, north of the port city of Kismayo.
The U.S. statement says its airstrike near Kunyo Barrow on Thursday killed two extremists. The U.S. has carried out over two dozen such airstrikes this year against the al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab.
In a separate attack, the African Union peacekeeping mission this week said al-Shabab's head of tax collection in Lower Shabelle region was killed on Monday after an ambush on a meeting in Bariire.
Al-Shabab funds its activities by taxing communities it controls.