The Pentagon announced on Friday that US forces targeted a leader of the al-Shabaab militant group in an operation in southern Somalia this week, Reuters reports. The announcement follows local reports of a drone strike in the region that allegedly killed three members of the al-Qaeda affiliated organization.
US officials declined to name the target of the strike, but CBS News and other US and African media named the target as Adnan Garaar, a top al-Shabaab official suspected of orchestrating the 2013 attack on the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi, which killed 67.
The widespread reporting of Garaar as the target prompted the US Embassy in Nairobi to warn U.S. citizens to be wary of their security.
