MOGADISHU, Somalia

Maalim Ayman, a key leader of al-Shabaab terror group, was killed earlier this week in an airstrike by the US African Command in Somalia, the government said Thursday. 

Information Minister Daud Aweis wrote on X that Ayman was killed Dec, 17 in an operation by the Somali national army with assistance from US forces.

“Ayman was accountable for planning multiple lethal terrorist attacks in Somalia and nearby countries,” said Aweis.

The US Department of State’s Rewards for Justice (RFJ) program offered a reward of up to $10 million for information leading to the arrest or conviction in any country of Ayman earlier this year.

Ayman was the mastermind of the Jan. 5, 2020, terror attack on US and Kenyan personnel at the Manda Bay Airfield in Kenya’s coastal region of Lamu.

The US said Ayman is the leader of Jaysh Ayman, an al-Shabaab unit conducting terror attacks and operations in Kenya and Somalia.

The State Department designated Ayman a “Specially Designated Global Terrorist” in November 2020.

The US said al-Shabaab terrorists killed a US soldier and two Defense Department contractors in a pre-dawn attack at Manda Bay in Kenya.

They also wounded two other US service members and a third contractor.

Al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for the attack.