A top suicide bomb-maker for Somalia's al-Shabab rebels has been killed in a drone strike, government officials say.
Somali Interior Minister Abdikarin Hussein Guled told government radio that his intelligence services had been tracking Ibrahim Ali Abdi, also known as Anta-Anta, for some time before the strike took place on Monday.
"The operation in which this man has been killed was very important for the government. This man had a major role in the death of many innocent civilians and his death will help in bringing back peace," Guled told Radio Mogadishu.
The strike came weeks after an audacious attack on the Westgate Mall in Nairobi claimed by the al-Qaeda-linked al-shabab group, in which at least 67 people were killed.
The minister did not say who carried out the drone attack, but an official in Washington said the US military was responsible.
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Officials from Somalia's internationally-backed government have described the dead militant as being well-known for making suicide bomber vests and preparing car bombs used regularly by the rebels to attack government-held areas.
"He was al-Shabab's chief suicide bomb-maker, he was responsible for numerous bomb attacks which claimed the lives of many Somalis," said Ridwan Haji Abdiweli, the prime minister's spokesman, adding that the government welcomed the strike.
There has been no comment from the Islamists.
Al-shabab have been driven out of Somalia's major towns, including the capital Mogadishu and the key southern port of Kismayo, by a UN-mandated African Union force that now numbers 17,700 men.
However, the group still controls large swathes of southern Somalia and has over the past few months stepped up the scale of its suicide attacks, including storming a UN compound in Mogadishu in June.
