Hassan Ali Dhoore Al-shabaab leader Killed in Somalia by US Drones

The US Pentagon has confirmed that Hassan Ali Dhoore Al-shabaab leader has been Killed in Somalia by a US Drone that struck Somalia on Thursday 31st March, 2016.

Hassan Ali Dhoore was involved in two attacks in Mogadishu more than a year ago, killing Americans.

It was the US military’s second strike in a month on terrorist targets in Somalia, a country against which the US has never declared war.

Hassan Ali Dhoore and two others were killed about 32 kilometres south of Jilib in southern Somalia not far from the Kenyan border.

They said Hassan Ali Dhoore helped facilitate a deadly Christmas Day 2014 attack at the airport that killed three African Union troops and a March 2015 attack at the Maka al-Mukarramah hotel which claimed 15 lives, both in the Somali capital.

On 5 March, US-piloted warplanes and drones attacked a Somali training camp for al-Shabaab, killing more than 100 people. While the exact death toll is disputed, according to an eyewitness and other local sources contacted, the strike was likely the single most lethal conducted by the US for a counter-terrorism operation since 9/11.

The US is not at war with Somalia. Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook claimed al-Shabaab was “part of al-Qaida”, which would place asserted legal authority for the strike under the umbrella of the 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force.

A 2012 video, believed to be authentic, announced the merger of al-Shabaab and al-Qaida.

Hassan Ali Dhoore is believed to have been plotting attacks targeting US citizens in Mogadishu.