05/09/2014
Ahmed Abdi Godane: Somalia's 'dead' al-Shabab leader
A reclusive figure with a love of poetry, Ahmed Abdi Godane became a feared jihadist, running assassination and bomb squads in Somalia. The Pentagon says he was killed in an air strike on 1 September. He rose to the helm of the al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabab group in 2008 after a US air strike killed his predecessor Aden Hashi Ayro in a remote village in southern Somalia. Also known as Mukhtar Abu Zubair, Godane#039;s ascent to power surprised some observers as he came from the breakaway northern region of Somaliland. quot;His rise to power within al-Shabab is unparalleled and in many ways counterintuitive in the history of Somalia#039;s political and military formations,quot; Rashid Abdi, an...
