Missile Strike Kills Somali Terrorist Leader Aden Hashi Ayro

By Alisha Ryu

02 May 2008

A missile strike has reportedly killed the al-Qaida-trained founder and leader of Somalia's militant al-Shabab insurgent group in central Somalia. Aden Hashi Ayro was on the U.S. list of suspected terrorists giving sanctuary to al-Qaida operatives believed to be responsible for the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

Residents in the Somali town of Dusamareb, about 480 kilometers north of the capital Mogadishu, say a thunderous explosion woke them out of bed before dawn.

U.S. Marine Corps CH-46 Sea Knight helicopters, like this one shown in a file photo operating in Somalia

An eyewitness, Elmi Hassan, said that the house where Aden Hashi Ayro had been staying was engulfed in flames after being hit by what Hassan believes were missiles.

Hassan says he is not sure whether the missiles were fired from a plane or launched from a ship, but he says they destroyed the house and killed people and animals. Hassan says he had seen American planes flying over the area in recent days.

In a telephone interview with Somali journalists, the spokesman for the radical Shabab movement Sheik Muktar Robow confirmed that Ayro, another senior Shabab leader, and seven other people were killed in an air strike, which he blamed on the United States.

Robow, who is also known as Abu Mansour, calls Ayro a martyr and says the attack will not deter Ayro's followers from their fighting.

According to numerous Somali and western intelligence sources, Ayro received terrorist training from al-Qaida in Afghanistan in the 1990s and gave protection to al-Qaida operatives wanted by the United States for their role in the bombings of U.S. embassies in East Africa 10 years ago.

Ayro is also believed to have played a key role in establishing ties between al-Qaida and the ultra-fundamentalist Shabab movement, which had functioned as the military wing of the Islamic Courts Union during its six-month rule over much of southern and central Somalia in 2006. The Shabab is a State Department designated terrorist group.

The courts' links to al-Qaida through the Shabab prompted Ethiopia, with U.S. support, to invade Somalia, oust the Islamic Courts Union, and install a secular, but unpopular, interim government in Mogadishu in December, 2006.

Ayro fled Mogadishu ahead of the Ethiopian invasion and barely survived a U.S. missile attack last January in Ras Kamboni, near Somalia's border with Kenya. In November, the hiding Islamist leader released an audio recording, urging attacks on African Union peacekeepers.

The town where Ayro was killed, Dusamareb, lies in the Galgadud region of central Somalia and is among a handful of towns in the region dominated by members of Ayro's clan, the Ayr.

The Ayr is a sub-clan of the Hawiye tribe that forms the majority in Mogadishu. Somali sources say that Ayro had sought refuge among the Ayr in the Galgadud region, while leading the Shabab in an Iraq-style insurgency against Ethiopian and Somali troops in the country.

The United States is calling the death of Aden Hashi Ayro in Somalia a victory against terrorism. But will it have an effect on the fighting in Somalia between forces of the Transitional Federal Government and various militias and armed groups, including the Shebab Islamist militia?

Matt Bryden is an independent analyst and expert on Somalia.

“First of all, it’s an important success for the US and their allies in Somalia. Ayro was a key and recognized leader of the Shebab, al-Qaida’s affiliate in Somalia. And as an individual, he was certainly one of those who had close links to the members of al-Qaida known to be in Somalia. And it shows that the efforts of the US, and presumably others – the Somali partners and possibly Ethiopians on the ground – are paying off. That they do have actionable intelligence on the Shebab and are able to conduct a strike like this. So, it shows the vulnerabilities of the Shebab leadership. And symbolically because Ayro was a known and visible figure, it’s a very important development,” he says.

As for the effect Ayro’s death may have on peace efforts and a possible government of national unity, Bryden says, “I think generally this is going to be viewed as a positive development. Ayro was seen as a problem, not only because of his links to al-Qaida and his membership in the Shebab per se, but because the Shebab and he personally have been seen as an obstacle to stability in parts of Somalia. He was most active in Central Somalia and also very much opposed to any dialogue between the Transitional Federal Government and the mainstream opposition, the Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia. He and the Shebab are potential spoilers, certainly would like to be. And I think this will help to create a little more confidence in the process and clear one of the potential obstacles,” he says.

Bryden adds, however, that it doesn’t mean Ayro’s death also spells the end of the Shebab. “It’s not clear whether operationally this is going to have a major impact on the Shebab.” The Shebab is one of the leading groups involved in the fighting in the capital, Mogadishu.

The analyst ranks Somalia as a “secondary front” in the war against terrorism. “ He says that the country’s profile was raised greatly following the Ethiopian invasion and the subsequent US air strikes. “That put Somalia on the map and persuaded many observers that it is a new front on the war on terror,” he says.