He is one of Washington’s most-wanted men. <br /><br />But it remains unclear whether Ahmed Abdi Godane, the leader of the Islamist group al Shabaab, was killed in a US military airstrike in Somalia on Monday.<br /><br />Several militants are thought to have died, south of Mogadishu, when manned and unmanned aircraft attacked an encampment of the group behind last year’s Nairobi shopping mall massacre.<br /><br />Godane however was the main target.<br /><br />Some US officials privately said they believed he was killed in the strike, but the US government was not ready to confirm that – even as it acknowledged the significance his death would have in the fight against the al Qaeda-linked group.<br /><br />“If he was killed, this is a very significant blow to their network, to their organisation and, we believe, to their ability to continue to conduct terrorist attacks,” Pentagon spokesman, Rear Admiral John Kirby, told reporters.<br /><br />Somali troops and an African Union mission are waging an offensive to recapture areas held by the Islamists – seizing weapons they left behind. <br /><br />Al Shabaab, which wants to impose its own strict version of Islam, was driven out of the capital Mogadishu by peacekeeping forces.
