U.S. Drone Strike in Somalia Said to Kill Organizer of Kenyan Mall Attack

The U.S. conducted a drone strike targeting a key planner of the 2013 attack on a Kenyan shopping mall attack, U.S. officials said Friday, and Somali officials said the militant organizer was killed.

Col. Steve Warren, the chief Pentagon spokesman, confirmed the U.S. conducted a counterterrorism operation against a so-called high value target on Thursday, but declined to provide details.

“This operation was conducted against the al-Shabaab network,” Col. Warren said, referring to Somali militant group with ties to the al Qaeda movement. “We are currently assessing the results of the operation.”

U.S. officials said privately that the target of the drone strike was Adan Garar, a planner of the 2013 attack on the Westgate mall in Nairobi. One official said the U.S. is 90% certain that Mr. Garar was killed in the attack but said the information hasn't yet been confirmed.

A spokesman for Somalia’s national security and intelligence ministry, Mohamed Yusuf, said Mr. Garaar was killed when the drone strike hit his vehicle near a village called Aqab-buul.

”He was killed together with his driver in the remote area of southern Somalia,” Mr. Yusuf said. He said there were no civilian deaths.

Mr. Yusuf said Mr. Garaar had just taken over intelligence oversight for al-Shabaab from Abdishakur Tahlil, who was killed in a U.S. airstrike in December.

More than 60 people were killed in the Westgate terror attack. The U.S. has targeted several al-Shabaab leaders who were suspected to be involved in the attack, including a September 2014 drone strike that killed the al-Shabaab commander known as Ahmed Abdi Godane.

Col. Warren said the latest strike occurred on a road west of Dinsoor and south of Mogadishu. Kenyan officials have said the strike occurred near the town of Bardhere, according to press reports. Bardhere is east of Dinsoor.

Col. Warren said no American troops were on the ground in Somalia as part of the operation. U.S. officials said the operation was carried out by a drone armed with Hellfire missiles.