The presence of Mr Ayro, whether his association with Al Qaeda is true or not, had been a liability to the Somali people’s fight against the fascist Woyanne occupation. As the report by the NYT indicates, it was Somalis from Ayro’s own clan who gave the U.S. military the necessary intelligence on his whereabouts. Now that the U.S. has accomplished its mission or eradicating Ayro, hopefully it will stop supporting Woyanne’s illegal and murderous occupation of Somalia.
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The New York Times
By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN and ERIC SCHMITT
NAIROBI, Kenya — Aden Hashi Ayro, long identified as one of Al Qaeda’s top operatives in East Africa and the leader of the Islamist comeback in Somalia, was killed Thursday morning by an American airstrike, according to American and Somali officials.
Mr. Ayro was one of the most feared and notorious figures in Somalia, a short, wispy man believed to be in his 30s who had gone from lowly car washer to top terrorist suspect blamed for a string of atrocities, including ripping up an Italian graveyard, killing a BBC journalist and planning suicide attacks all across Somalia.
He was a military commander for the Shebab, an Islamist militia which the American government recently classified as a terrorist group, saying it was linked to Al Qaeda.
Somalia officials said his death could be a key turning point in defeating the Islamists, who have seized several towns in recent weeks, and in bringing peace to the country.
“This will definitely weaken the Shebab,” said Mohamed Aden, consul for Somalia’s embassy in Nairobi, the capital of neighboring Kenya. “This will help with reconciliation. You can’t imagine how many Somalis are saying, ‘Yes, this is the one.’ The reaction is so good.”
Maj. Sherri Reed, a spokeswoman for the United States Central Command in Tampa, Fla., confirmed that the military had attacked “a known Al Qaeda target” in the central Somalia town of Dhusamareb, but declined to give more details of the pre-dawn strike.
“It’s significant,” said Major Reed, who said there was no evidence to suggest there were any civilian casualties from the attack.
But an American military official in Washington, who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the operation, said that at least four Tomahawk cruise missiles fired from a Navy ship off the Somali coast had slammed into a small compound of single-story buildings in Dhusamareb, a well-known hideout for Mr. Ayro and his associates. The official confirmed Mr. Ayro was dead, along with several top lieutenants.
“This was in the works for some time,” said the official. He said that American intelligence agents had been tracking Mr. Ayro for weeks, through a combination of communications intercepts, satellite imagery and other intelligence.
Human rights organizations have upbraided the American government for launching air strikes against terrorist suspects inside Somalia and killing civilians instead, which has happened several times in the past year. But this time the missiles seemed to find their mark.
Around 3 a.m. Thursday morning, residents of Dhusamareb were jolted out of bed by several large explosions. According to witnesses and a spokesman for the Shebab, more than 10 people were killed, including Mr. Ayro, Mr. Ayro’s brother and several other high-ranking Shebab commanders.
Some witnesses said as many as 30 people were dead and that residents were counting skulls to determine the precise number of casualties.
“Infidel planes bombed Dhusamareb,” a Shebab spokesman, Mukhtar Ali Robow, told Reuters. “Two of our important people, including Ayro, were killed.”
The American official said: “For the Horn of Africa, this is pretty significant. He’s certainly considered a leader in Al Qaeda’s effort there. This can be chalked up as a success.”
Dhusamareb, a town of about 100,000 people along one of the few highways in Somalia, is a stronghold of the Ayr clan, which Mr. Ayro belongs to. In the past few weeks, residents said, Islamist fighters had moved into the town, part of their strategy to wrest back control from the Transitional Federal Government, which is officially in charge of Somalia but wields little power on the ground.
In 2006, Mr. Ayro was one of the militia commanders of an Islamist movement that briefly ruled Somalia. That rule ended in December 2006 when Ethiopian troops, backed up by American intelligence and air power, ousted the Islamists.
Since then, American forces have launched several airstrikes inside Somalia, including one in January 2007 which was thought to have wounded Mr. Ayro.
In the past attacks, cruise missiles were often used, launched from American war ships in the Indian Ocean.
American officials have said they have been given permission by Somalia’s government to attack terrorist suspects on Somali soil. American officials have accused Mr. Ayro of protecting wanted Qaeda members, including some of the men thought to have planned the bombings of American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998.
Mr. Ayro’s life story is a bit sketchy. According to Somali intelligence agents, he dropped out of school at a young age to wash cars and join one of the street-gang type militias that was fighting for control of Somalia in the early 1990s after the central government collapsed.
He became friends with a leader of his clan, Hassan Dahir Aweys, who arranged for him to go to Afghanistan to fight with the Taliban against American forces in 2001. He then returned to Mogadishu and trained fellow fighters in explosives, according to the International Crisis Group, a research organization that specializes in analyzing conflicts.
In January 2005, Mr. Ayro desecrated the graves of dozens of Italians who had been buried in Mogadishu decades ago, when Somalia was an Italian colony. Mr. Ayro was essentially disowned by his clan after that. But his militant activities only increased, and in February 2005 he was blamed for gunning down a BBC news producer outside her hotel in Mogadishu.
Mr. Ayro had recently gone to Dhusamareb with a band of his fighters to help set up a local administration. But clan elders rejected him, said Mohammed Uluso, a leader of the Ayr clan, because the elders “didn’t want to mix up their legitimate goals with something suspicious.” That might have been part of Mr. Ayro’s undoing, because Somali officials said that people in Dhusamareb provided American forces with up-to-the-minute intelligence on Mr. Ayro’s movements.
Mr. Uluso said Mr. Ayro was small and thin and looked like “a high school student, not this big guy the Americans were after.”
Mr. Uluso said he thinks the Shebab will continue to be a potent resistance force even after Mr. Ayro’s death because many young Somalis see the Shebab as a “heroic cause” in terms of standing up to the Americans. (Shebab is the Arabic word for youth.)
“The Shebab won’t just disappear,” Mr. Uluso said. “But now that the hunt for Ayro is over, at least people will get their freedom back. So many people were hurt and oppressed in the effort to get him.”
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Jeffrey Gettleman reported from Nairobi, Kenya, and Eric Schmitt reported from Washington.
11 thoughts on “Alleged Qaeda agent in Somalia killed in U.S. attack”
The question is whether Aryo was indeed a “Terrorist” in the first place. Even if they killed him and there may not be any convincing evidense to that, how many people have they killed in what they will be quick to dismiss it as collateral damage. The Eritrean and Ethiopian people should never be misled by the imperialistic maneuvers of the neo-cons that are runnibg the show in the White House and the State Department.
MY hat is off to the Ethiopian=WEYANE & Somalia security forces !
DUMB ASS “Editor”!
You used to call these very terrorists “freedom fighters” now you turn around and say he “was a liability” to Somalis? Your ill wish will not/never materialize. On the contrary his death will bring peace to Somalis and Somalia as the ordinary Somalis had nothing to do with the insurgency. The transitional govt will be in charge and WEYANNE’s Plan will succeed. Qatar and its servant Shabia/Eritrea will have no messenger in Somalia! Elelele lelele lele e lelee!
This week has been a golden week for WEYANE! Its no 1 enemy in Somalia killed (with other 20 terrorists including his brother) and WORLD BANK approving hundreds of million of Dollars, African Athletics Championship being held peacefully and colourfully in Addis, well what can I say?
You must be shitting your pants now. As you are scared not to be deported from your hiding place, USA, you want to portray yourself as anti terrorist. Is it only today you realized Al Shabab was a self confessed terrorist? Hum? KOMATA Yedeha lij!
VIVA WEYANE !
VIVA the Transitional Govt of Somalia!
VIVA MELES ZENAWI !
bleave or not he is dead you will be next !!!!!!.
maferya (sabia,al sabeb).
this does not bring everlasting solution.the American may kill many suspectes,but they do not kill their cause by killing individuals.
if that was true things could have neen smooth in iraq after the killing of Sadam.
power without acceptablity brings failertity.
there were many powerfull and higly civilised nation in our world like a roman empire.but when they did evertything by force,out of the will of the people,they collapsed.this history ws also happened recently in russia.
as to my view the American officials are turned to the era of direct colonialism.it is really a regeresion.
anyway,they could no kill the aim of Alkaida by methoeds of brutality,althoguth i know they may be killed individuas as they claimed.
We better take care of our Ethiopian matters with regard to the institutionalized minority Wayane dictatorship terrorizing 80 million Etghiopians for the last 17 years and leading that wretched country back to the middle ages.
Propaganda sales but where is the hard proof for any kind of nominal and impartial judgement?
Soon the entire wretched African masses and their struggling leaders will surely be conviently characterized as terrorists just for the purpose of robbing their natural scarce raw materials such as oil,gas, large deposits of metal and minerals as well as fertile agricultural farm lands coupled with cheap human labour.
Folks: believe me a clear pattern of 21st century colonialism is starting to emerge. Ethiopians need to unite and stand up to build their country and justice for all because that will help us to withstand the divide and rule emerging creeping colonialist policy and manipulations.
Gobeze: You are one confused individual plus sick individual! What do you want from the Editor? All of this trash word? Shame on you! betame dedebe sewe nehe ye-ethiopianwinte chewanet yegodelehe nehe I don’t think you are Ethiopian to begin with. Your comment has nothing to do with the current issues. On top of that your just one loser person you don’t seems to know what’s right and wrong…..
This we killed a terrorist propaganda is just that, news coming from the area by reputable sources states that early in the morning while people were asleep four planes bombed this town that was starting to breathe life was awakened by huge explosions and body parts were seen flying in the air, over 30 residents of the town are dead, houses destroyed and lives shattered while the American military is trying to revive the morale of Woyanne army in Somalia. Woyanne military’s morale is very low in Somalia and of course there is always an excuse of the bogeyman “hunting for terrorism” to make a massacre sound like a legitimate military operation. When Woyanne military was ordered to conquer Somalia in December 06 this type of “air support” killed innocent herdsmen yet western news agencies lauded the bombing of innocent civilians as an operation against al quaida in Somalia. No matter what they call these barbaric bombing mission they are nothing but a wag the dog effort to cover Woyanne’s behind which is losing grip in Somalia and other regions in Ethiopia.
What is sickening is the individuals in this forum who revel in the misery of innocent people in our region thinking that Woyanne will somehow miraculously survive the inferno that they started, they will fail, the only sad part is that they will take a lot of innocent people in our region.
No matter what the aggressors/state terrorists and their bosses do, invaded peoples and countries will continue to fight for their independence. Loss of fighter will bring more determination. Just as Ethiopian had fought against the Italians and finally got their independence so will the Somalis and other peoples or countries who are now under the aggression of the ‘powerful’.
I think no race, or people of collor, or religion praises or endorses aggression or occupation. If we put ourselves in place of the invaded peoples or countries we could appreciate what being invaded mean. May be it is our fathers or grad fathers/mothers who know what aggression like. That many be the reason why some of us could not appreciate the condition uncer which the invaded peoples are in. Please let us try to understand victims of aggression
How do we know that this slained individual accused of “terrorism” or being an alqida agent in somali isn’t just another somali citizen who happened to be at the wrong time at the wrong place????
And what right does usa have to bomb somalia and kill 30 people while chasing after one man??? what right does usa have on us inorder to do all the nasty things it does it our region???
It is a sign of how the US administration has sunk when they admit to killing 10 people (truth is they may have killed 3 times that number) and celebrate the massacre. As you could see, the people of Somalia had no ill will to the US. However, rest assured the the actions of the US and its adopted woyane viceroys only stoke hatred and will leave a legacy of violence for this region and beyond.
The ajority of peple no longer associate the USA with good, but with violence. As for the woyane, they have succeede in in reviving old enmities that no one needs, The ethiopian soldiers in Mogadishu are seen as in worse light than occupiers except by the self serving poodles they call a government.
What the lawless world!!!!!!!!!!!! those who refused to become USA’s and britian’s dogs are considered as terrorists.