MOGADISHU
A leading militant in Somalia's Al-Shabaab group has been killed in clashes with government troops in the southern Lower Shebelle region, a security official said on Friday.
"Government forces killed Al-Shabaab militant Ibrahim Feili and four of his escorts during confrontations in Kurtunwarey city," Colonel Hassan Mohamed Abu Bakr told reporters in Mogadishu.
He added that the clashes had been part of a "security campaign" on militants in the Lower Shebelle region.
The Al-Qaeda-inspired militant group has yet to confirm Feili's killing.
Somalia has remained in the grip of on-again, off-again violence since the outbreak of civil war in 1991.
Earlier this year, fractious Somalia appeared to inch closer to stability after government troops and African Union forces – deployed in the country since 2007 – drove Al-Shabaab from most of its strongholds.
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