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Kenya Says It Killed Al-Shabab Intel Chief


A screen-shot made on February 18, 2016 posted on the US department of state website, shows a portrait of Somalia-based jihadist islamist group Al-Shabaab (or Shebab) spy chief Mahad Karate, next to a $5 million-dollar bounty.
A screen-shot made on February 18, 2016 posted on the US department of state website, shows a portrait of Somalia-based jihadist islamist group Al-Shabaab (or Shebab) spy chief Mahad Karate, next to a $5 million-dollar bounty.

Kenya's army says it has killed the intelligence chief for the Somalia-based militant group al-Shabab, but the group is denying the claim.

Military spokesman David Obonyo told reporters Thursday that Mahad Karate, also known as Abdirahim Mohamed Warsame, was killed along with 10 mid-level members of the Islamist group in an airstrike in southern Somalia on February 8.

A pro-al-Shabab website is reporting that the report is false, and that Karate is fine. It says no airstrikes hit the camp.

The U.S. State Department has offered a $5 million reward for information that brings Karate "to justice." It says he plays a key role in the Amnyiat, the wing of al-Shabab responsible for the assault on Kenya's Garissa University last April that killed nearly 150 people.

Al-Shabab has carried out numerous attacks in Kenya since the government sent troops into Somalia to fight Al-Shabab in 2011.

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