US airstrike kills senior militant leader in Somalia

A leader of al-Qaeda linked militant group Al-Shabaab was killed in a US airstrike, Somalia’s National Intelligence and Security Agency said Tuesday. "With the help of the Somali national security and intelligence agency and its US counterpart, an Al-Shabaab leader was killed last night,” the agency said in a statement. On Monday, the Pentagon confirmed it had launched an airstrike, targeting an unidentified leader of the Islamist group in Saakow, some 330 kilometers west of Mogadishu. The militants have been attempting to overthrow western-backed Somalian government. In September, the US killed the group’s top leader, Ahmed Godane, in an airstrike.