The US said it carried out a strike near Barawe in southern Somalia on August 31st, killing one al Shabaab fighter and wounding one other.

AP reported that “At least one missile struck a location outside Barawe that the extremists often use to launch attacks on the government-held town, a Somali intelligence official said. He declined to give further details. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.”

Officials told Voice of America that the fighter killed was a key al Shabaab commander. He was named by Aden Omar, the district commissioner of Barawe town, as Abu Xudeyfi – while local sources gave his name as Sheikh Abdirahman Xudeyfi. There were no reports of civilian harm.

“I can confirm that the airstrike happened on Friday [September 1]. It was carried out by a suspected US drone. The strike targeted al-Shabaab officials. Our intelligence sources confirm that a top al-Shabaab commander in charge of recruiting fighters for the militants was killed in the strike,” Omar told VOA.

“The killed official was named Abu-Xudeyfi, probably his al-Shabaab name; we are currently assessing if any other al-Shabaab official was hit in the attack, and will provide additional information as appropriate,” he added.

Local sources told VOA the strike hit a vehicle in which al-Shabaab officials were traveling in near Kunya Barrow village in the Lower Shabelle region. In a followup report, VOA said that “a U.S. strike killed Abdirahman Hudeyfi, former al-Shabab governor of the Jubba regions, while he was en route to a market to buy a sheep to slaughter for Eid al-Adha celebrations, according to Somali officials.” It also placed the date of the strike on September 1st.

In a subsequent FOIA response obtained by journalist Joshua Eaton in May 2019, AFRICOM again confirmed it had struck what it says were al Shabaab fighters on this date, in the vicinity of Kunyo Barrow.

The local time of the incident is unknown.