Shebab confirms death of Garissa attack leader

By AFP

Africa

JUN 19, 2016 LISTEN

A Kenyan soldier stands guard at the entrance of Garissa University after it re-opened nine after a deadly siege by Shebab gunmen in April 2015. By Tony Karumba (AFP)

Mogadishu (AFP) - Somalia's Shebab jihadists have confirmed the death of a commander suspected of organising the 2015 attack on Kenya's Garissa University that left 148 people dead.

The killing of Mohamed Mohamud aka Dulyadin was announced by Somali officials on June 1 and Shebab confirmed his death with the release of an obituary on Saturday.

"We console ourselves and our nation for the martyrdom of the Muslim knight commander Sheik Mohamed Mohamud Ali (Dulyadin). May Allah accept him and lift him to paradise," it said.

Shebab said the commander, also know by the aliases 'Kuno' and 'Gamadhere', was killed by "US crusaders".

Somali officials had said he died in a Somali special forces raid close to the southern port town of Kismayo. Somalia's special forces are trained by and receive logistical support from the US.

Mohamud, a Kenyan national and an ethnic Somali, was killed alongside three other commanders and his body later put on display by local authorities.