American military forces carried out an operation against the Islamic militant group Al-Shabab in Somalia on Monday, according to the Pentagon. According to American and Somali officials, Shabab leader Ahmed Abdi Godane may have been killed in the airstrike, which occurred at approximately 7:45 p.m. Monday night a small village near Barawe. “Several cars were destroyed and Godane may have been in one of them. We are awaiting results from our secret services,” said a Somali official. A U.S. official in Nairobi said “we’re 80 percent sure” Godane was killed in the strike. The attack came a day after the al Qaeda-linked group, which the U.S. has designated a terrorist organization, set off a car bomb outside a high-security prison in Mogadishu and fired its way into the building. Three security guards and two civilians were killed. Also Monday, the African Union announced that military forces had liberated several important Somali towns from the group, which wants to turn the country into a fundamentalist Islamic state.
