Garissa attack mastermind killed in raid - Somali officials

Kenya’s most wanted Mohammed Kuno, believed to be the mastermind of the Garissa University attacks has been killed in a raid, according to officials.

A Somali official in Jubaland confirmed the death of Mohamed Kuno at a news conference. Abdirashid Janan said he was killed in an overnight raid with 15 others in Kismayo in southern Somalia.

Four other top members of al-Shabab are also believed to have died in the raid.

Meanwhile, the spokesman for the Mogadishu Municipality, Abdifatah Omar, said Somali security forces have killed the head of the intelligence unit of the militant group al-Shabaab, also kwown as Amniyat.

However, no further details were given about when the militant’s intelligence chief, only known as Daud, was killed. Mohammed Kuno was a Kenyan-Somali, who was headmaster of an Islamic school in Garissa before he joined the Union of Islamic Courts and later al-Shabaab in 2010.

The Kenyan government put a 20 million shilling bounty – an equivalent of over 200,000 dollars – on his head, after the attack in April 2015, in which 148 people mostly students were killed.

The news of his death comes same day gunmen stormed a hotel in Mogadishu after a car bomb exploded killing at least 10 people.

Some unconfirmed reports suggests it is in retaliation for the killing of al-Shabaab leaders, which security analysts said is a big blow to the militant group.

AFP/ Reuters