Kenya says Shebab’s intelligence chief, 10 commanders killed

PanARMENIAN.Net - Kenya's army said Thursday, February 18 it had killed the intelligence chief of the Shebab Islamist insurgent group and 10 other commanders in an air strike in Somalia, AFP said.

Kenya celebrated what it called a "major blow" to the Al-Qaeda-linked group with the killing of Mahad Karate, who has a $5 million U.S. bounty on his head.

The Shebab however dismissed the claim as "baseless." Kenyan troops, part of an African Union force in Somalia (AMISOM) fighting the insurgents, claimed to have killed Karate, a top commander also responsible for internal security, in an air strike at a Shebab training camp 10 days ago.

Karate - head of the Shebab's Amniyat unit, a special security wing responsible for intelligence, attacks and assassinations - is said to have been involved in plotting the 2015 massacre of 148 people at Garissa university in northeastern Kenya.

"The killing... is a major blow to the terrorist group," army spokesman David Obonyo said in a statement.

"The Kenya Defense Forces, under AMISOM operations, would like to confirm that Mahad Mohammed Karate... and 10 other middle level commanders were killed in a major KDF strike," in southern Somalia on February 8, Obonyo said. The 10-day delay in announcing Karate's death suggests efforts were made to identify the remains.

But the Shehab dismissed the report, saying Kenya was claiming the death after its army base in El-Adde in southwest Somalia was overrun by the Islamists last month.

"All soldiers and leaders of the mujahedeen fighters are safe and sound, there were no air strikes carried out," the group said in a statement.