{"id":5085,"date":"2014-09-03T13:48:39","date_gmt":"2014-09-03T06:48:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/?p=5085"},"modified":"2014-09-03T13:49:00","modified_gmt":"2014-09-03T06:49:00","slug":"us-strike-targets-leader-of-somali-extremist-group","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/east-africa\/somalia\/us-strike-targets-leader-of-somali-extremist-group\/","title":{"rendered":"US strike targets leader of Somali extremist group"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mogadishu, Somalia (AP) \u2014 U.S. airstrikes in Somalia may have killed the leader of the Islamic extremist group al-Shabab, with a militant commander saying Tuesday that he was in a car that was struck and that six people died.<\/p>\n

The leader, Ahmed Abdi Godane, has no heir apparent. If he has been killed, it would be a “significant blow” to al-Shabab’s organization and abilities, said U.S. Navy Rear Adm. John Kirby, a Pentagon spokesman, who confirmed the strikes targeting Godane.<\/p>\n

But Godane’s death could also lead the group to ditch its association with al-Qaida and align itself with the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq, analysts said. Al-Shabab gained international notoriety a year ago this month when it attacked the upscale Westgate Mall in Nairobi, Kenya, killing at least 67 people…<\/p>\n

Read More<\/a><\/p>\n

South Africa Today Africa \u2013 East Africa Somalia<\/a> News<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mogadishu, Somalia (AP) \u2014 U.S. airstrikes in Somalia may have killed the leader of the Islamic extremist group al-Shabab, with a militant commander saying Tuesday that he was in a car that was struck and that six people died. The leader, Ahmed Abdi Godane, has no heir apparent. If he has been killed, it would […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":188473,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[253],"tags":[258,256,3242,499,4695,3863,449,257,3866,4690,442,254,3862,3864,3865],"class_list":["post-5085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-somalia","tag-africa","tag-africa-news","tag-ahmed-abdi-godane","tag-al-shabab","tag-east-africa","tag-islamic-state-group-in-syria","tag-mogadishu","tag-news","tag-somali-extremist-group","tag-somalia","tag-somalia-news","tag-south-africa-today","tag-u-s-airstrikes-in-somalia","tag-westgate-mall","tag-westgate-mall-in-nairobi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5085"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5085\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/188473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}