A US airstrike in Somalia killed senior al Shabaab leader Hassan Ali Dhoore on March 31, the Pentagon announced Monday. The Pentagon initially reported the strike on Friday, but had not determined Dhoore’s fate. Dhoore, who was part of al Qaeda and a member of Al Shabaab’s security and intelligence wing, was directly involved in the Christmas 2014 attack on the Mogadishu International Airport and the March 27, 2015, attack on the Maka al-Mukarram Hotel in that city, according to a Department of Defense release. The Pentagon reported Dhoore planned or oversaw attacks that killed at least three US citizens and was plotting more. (See also: More Strikes Possible in Somalia.)
Lt. Gen. Stephen L. Davis, the Department of the Air Force’s top internal watchdog, has been nominated to lead Air Force Global Strike Command, which oversees the service’s bombers and intercontinental ballistic missiles.