Aden Hashi Farah Aero (Somali: Aaden Xaashi Faarax Ceyroow, Arabic: آدن حاشي فارح عيرو) (1976[1] – 1 May 2008[2]) also known as Abu Muhsin al-Ansari[3] was a military commander of Al Shabaab.
On 10 June 2006, The Guardian repeated this story by stating, "An unnamed network run by one of Aweys's proteges, Aden Hashi Farah "Aero", has been linked to the murder of four western aid workers and more than a dozen Somalis who allegedly cooperated with counter-terror organisations.
[7] In the aftermath of the raid, Ayro initiated a clandestine recruitment effort in Mogadishu to establish a militia "to protect Islam and save the Somali nation from infidels."
Ayro strategically targeted marginalized young men, offering them employment, a sense of belonging, and self-esteem by emphasizing the defense of religion and nation against external threats.
Yet, a select group of elite al-Shabaab fighters, primarily from Ayro's Ayr sub-clan, were deeply loyal to their leader and committed to establishing an Islamic caliphate in Somalia.
[8][9] By the time Ethiopia launched its invasion of Somalia in December 2006 to oust Somali Islamists from power, as many as 5,000 young men were thought to have been recruited into al-Shabaab in Mogadishu alone.
For example, Ayro's former deputy in the ICU, Mukhtar Robow, was said to have led a cell in his home region of Bay, targeting Ethiopian and government troops protecting the Somali parliament in the town of Baidoa.