The US drone raid on March 12 struck a vehicle carrying Adan Garar, "a key operative responsible for coordinating al-Shabaab's external operations" who was "connected" to the Westgate massacre, the Pentagon said in a statement.
Four al-Shabaab terrorists staged the mall attack, which the group said it undertook in retaliation for the Kenya government’s decision to send troops to Somalia.
Last month, al-Shabaab posted a video online in which it urged similar attacks on shopping centers in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.
The terrorist group has been fighting for more than seven years to impose an Islamic state in Somalia, which has been without an effective government since the overthrow of the Revolutionary Socialist Party in 1991.
