U.S. Kills Militant Linked to Deadly Attack on American Troops in Somalia by Michael M. Phillips – Wall Street Journal
An April 19 U.S. airstrike in Somalia killed the al-Shabaab militant believed responsible for an American soldier’s death last year in an attack on an isolated outpost, according to the U.S. military.
Abdullahi Jiibiyow was hit as he and another militant were riding a motorcycle about 10 miles from the village of Sanguuni in southern Somalia, a U.S. military official said.
Sanguuni was the site of the al-Shabaab assault that killed U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Alex Conrad on June 8, 2018. Sgt. Conrad, an intelligence specialist, was attached to a Green Beret team building a small base to project Somali-government authority into the countryside and villages previously controlled by al-Shabaab, al Qaeda’s local affiliate.
Mr. Jiibiyow was the senior al-Shabaab commander on the ground, leading a mortar team that shelled the outpost, said Maj. Karl Wiest, a spokesman for U.S. Africa Command. Shrapnel from an explosive round mortally injured Sgt. Conrad, a 26-year-old from Chandler, Ariz., and wounded four other Americans and a Somali soldier…