The US Pentagon confirmed on Friday that Ahmed Godane, a co-founder of the Al-Shabaab terror group, was killed in a US airstrike in Somalia this week. The killing was termed a major symbolic and operational loss for the Al Qaeda-linked organization.
Godane is also reported to have commissioned the deadly attack on Nairobi's Westgate Shopping mall that left over 60 dead last year.
"We have confirmed that Ahmed Godane, the co-founder of Al-Shabaab, has been killed," Rear Admiral John Kirby, the Pentagon press secretary, said in a statement.
Godane was killed in a hail of US missiles targeting him supposedly leaving a power vacuum in the group's leadership, potentially the biggest challenge to its unity since it emerged as a fighting force eight years ago.
Experts say there is a real chance the death of the man who ruled the group with an iron fist and left no obvious successors could trigger infighting or the formation of smaller, potentially more dangerous splinter movements.
Godane, whose studies took him in the late 1990s to Pakistan and probably from there on a stint to Afghanistan, where the shadow of Osama Bin Laden still loomed large, is not the first Shabaab leader to be targeted by the US military.
In 2008, his predecessor, Aden Hashi Ayro, was killed in a similar raid. Godane was later declared head by the Al Shabaab's Shura council, at the time an influential body in the group.
However, new leader may not emerge so swiftly this time partly because Godane scrapped the shura council which picked him, seeing it as an apparent threat. Using tactics more akin to an African warlord, he also killed rivals or dissenting voices, leaving no one in line to succeed him.
Few potential successors boast the kind of experience and skills that helped Godane keep a tight hold on power. Because he came from Somaliland in the north and ran a group with its power base in southern and central Somalia,Godane could claim to stand above local clan politics bedevilling Somalia. Godane has been described as a shrewd politician with a strong pragmatic streak, suggesting his focus on jihad abroad was driven as much by tactics as ideology. When fighting invading Ethiopians in 2006 under another Islamist government in which he served,Godane turned to nationalist rhetoric to rally support.
His Islamist credentials were assured by skills in Islamist debate displayed even as a young man, but Godane was also known for mastery of Somali poetry, notably citing the patriotic Siid Mohamed Abdille, who rallied against colonial Italy and Britain until his death in the early 20th century.
Several names are cited as possible successors, such as Sheikh Mukhtar Robow, also known as Abu Mansour, who has previously acted as a spokesman for the group.
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