MOGADISHU (Reuters) - U.S. war planes killed an Islamist rebel said to be al Qaeda's leader in Somalia and as many as 30 other people on Thursday in Washington's biggest blow against an insurgency raging since 2007.
The rebels said Aden Hashi Ayro -- who led al Shabaabmilitants blamed for attacks on government troops and theirEthiopian allies -- died in the first major success for astring of U.S. air-strikes on Somali insurgents in the lastyear.
"Infidel planes bombed Dusamareb," Shabaab spokesmanMukhtar Ali Robow told Reuters by phone, referring to a town incentral Somalia, where body parts lay strewn round a wreckedhouse.
"Two of our important people, including Ayro, were killed."
The death of the Afghanistan-trained militant is likely tobolster the Western-backed Somali government's efforts to stema rebellion that has been gaining ground. But it is sure toenrage Ayro's fellow fighters, who say they are waging a jihadto eject Ethiopian troops.
One local elder said 30 bodies had been recovered from theruins.
Ayro was a key figure on the ground masterminding theIslamists' Iraq-style insurgency against alliedSomali-Ethiopian troops. The violence had intensified in recentweeks, with scores of deaths in Mogadishu and a series ofhit-and-run raids by the Islamists on towns outside thecapital.
"His elimination is very important," said M.J. Gohel, headof the Asia-Pacific Foundation, a security think-tank inLondon.
"(But) the penetration by al Qaeda in Somalia is so greatthat he will be replaced. This is a setback (for themilitants), and it will be felt, but it's not a mortal blow."
Dusamareb residents said several other Shabaab fighters andcivilians were killed in the pre-dawn air strike on the dustyand rocky town in a largely pastoralist area. One resident saidthe stone house that was targeted had been completelyflattened.
COUNTING SKULLS
"Bits of human flesh are scattered on the ruins of thebuilding," witness Farah Hussein told Reuters. "People arecounting the skulls to know the exact figure."
Another local said residents were woken at 2 a.m. (midnightBritish time) by two huge blasts and counted four planesoverhead. Local broadcaster Shabelle said they were U.S. AC-130gunships.
Robow said Ayro had trained many men: "We know our enemy ishappy today, but their work will continue."
Western security services have long seen lawless Somalia asa haven for militants. Warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed SiadBarre in 1991, casting the country into chaos.
Somalia-based al Qaeda operatives were suspected in twosuicide attacks in Kenya that killed 224 people at the U.S.embassy in 1998 and 15 at an Israeli-owned beach hotel in 2002.
Security and intelligence sources say Ayro, in hiding sincea U.S. air strike in January 2007, trained in Afghanistan inthe late 1990s. He was one of six members or associates of alQaeda thought by the United States to be in Somalia.
"He would have been a very dangerous figure to contendwith, not just in Somalia itself but for neighbouring countriestoo," security analyst Gohel told Reuters.
Ethiopia said it hoped Ayro's death would weaken his group.
Al Shabaab is the armed wing of the Somalia Islamic CourtsCouncil that took over most of southern Somalia for the secondhalf of 2006, until the government and Ethiopian forces routedit in a two-week war.
Under Ayro, the Shabaab adopted Iraq-style tactics,including assassinations and roadside bombs and claimed atleast one suicide bombing -- unheard of in Somalia's moderateSufi Islamic customs.
Western security officials and diplomats say it has alsobeen responsible for killing aid workers and journalists, thedesecration of an Italian colonial-era cemetery in 2005 andscores of attacks during the insurgency.
