Somalia's hardline Shebab Islamist group yesterday vowed to avenge the death of a top regional Al-Qaeda leader during a lightning US military operation on Somali territory.
According to US officials and Western security sources, Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, a Kenyan citizen wanted by the FBI over the 2002 anti-Israeli attacks in Mombasa, was killed in a raid in southern Somalia on Monday.
The rare operation, which witnesses said involved several helicopters, dealt a blow to Al-Qaeda's operations in East Africa but the Shebab, an extremist jihadi group, pledged to strike back.
"Muslims will retaliate against this unprovoked attack," a top Shebab leader told AFP. "The United States is Islam's known enemy and we will never expect mercy from them, nor should they expect mercy from us."
"We are investigating the matter and if any Somali is found to have aided the attackers, then he or she shall face Allah's verdict," he said on condition of anonymity.
The Shebab official refused to elaborate on the circumstances of the operation, in which several other militants are believed to have been killed.
The area where Mr Nabhan was killed, around 200 kilometres (120 miles) south of the capital Mogadishu, is firmly under the control of the Shebab.
The Shebab group has its roots in Somali Islamist movements created more than two decades ago.
The Shebab - whose commanders were trained and fought in Afghanistan - spearheaded the bloody resistance against Ethiopia's two-year occupation of Somalia and are now involved in a deadly insurgency against the government.
Some of its leaders claim links to Al-Qaeda and the movement is known to have sheltered known Al-Qaeda operatives such as Fazul Abdullah, wanted over the Mombasa attacks as well as the deadly 1998 US embassy bombings in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam.
Mr Nabhan and Mr Abdullah are suspected of involvement in recruiting some of the 500 foreign fighters currently believed to be in Somalia, fuelling fears that Somalia could become a new breeding ground for Osama bin Laden's organisation.
The US has expressed concern that the Shebab would turn Somalia into an extremist haven similar to the border area between Afghanistan and Pakistan - which has been a top priority for the Barack Obama Administration.