Mogadishu - A commander of Islamist militant group al-Shabaab was killed in a US drone attack in Somalia, the East African nation's National Intelligence and Security Agency said Wednesday.
“The killed al-Shabaab commander is called Abdinur Mahdi, also known as Yusuf Dheeg,” NISA said in a statement.
Dheeg, who was killed on Saturday, was in charge of coordinating attacks inside and outside of Somalia, as well as assassinations and suicide bombings, the statement added.
An unidentified number of other al-Shabaab members were killed in the same drone attack, NISA said.
Dheeg is the second al-Shabaab leader killed by a US drone, after the group's leader, Ahmed Abdi Godane, was killed in a similar mission in September.
Also on Wednesday, a Somali government soldier was killed by a car bomb in the capital, Mogadishu, a local official told dpa.
Seven other people were injured in the blast, which went off in the capital's Karaan district.
“The bomb, which was concealed in a vehicle owned by a Somali government soldier, was detonated by remote control in Karaan district,” said district commissioner Ahmed Hassan Yalahow.
Al-Shabaab on Wednesday claimed responsibility for an explosion at the offices of pro-insurgent website SomaliMemo.
Sapa-dpa