Somalia Army Says Al-Shabab Leader Dead, Group Denies Info

Local Editor

The Somali National Army (SNA) Radio has reported the death of the supreme leader of the al-Shabaab militants Ahmed Dirie Abu Ubeyda.

The broadcaster run by the military, reported that Abu Ubeyda died in Jilib District in Middle Shabelle, about 410km south of Mogadishu.

The report could not be independently confirmed, but the local media outlets have been reporting about the ill-health of Abu Ubeyda and the infighting within the extremist group over his succession.

A southern Somalia military officer, Ismael Sheikh Isaq, reportedly told the SNA Radio that the army received credible information that the al-Shabaab leader died of kidney failure.

He gave no date for of the death.

However, a pro-al-Shabab website, citing an unnamed commander reported that Abu Ubeyda was "alive and safe", dismissing Somali military claims of the leader's death as "baseless".

Abu Ubeyda assumed the leadership of the Al-Shabaab in December 2014, three months after his predecessor Ahmed Abdi Godane alias Sheikh Mukhtar Abu Zubayr, was killed in a US drone attack.

The Takfiri group has neither confirmed nor denied the alleged death of its supreme leader.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team