[43] On 1 September 2014, a U.S. airstrike carried out near the town of Haawaay as part of the broader mission killed Al-Shabaab leader Moktar Ali Zubeyr.

Political analysts likewise suggested that the insurgent leader's death will likely lead to Al-Shabaab's fragmentation and eventual dissolution.

[45] Prime Minister Abdiweli Sheikh Ahmed announced that the pardon offer had begun to be taken up by many defectors.

[32] Among the latter militants was senior commander Zakariya Ismail Ahmed Hersi, who turned himself in to local police in the southwestern Gedo province in late December 2014.

But Al-Shabaab denied that there was any strike, and a Somali government official cast doubt on the intelligence chief's death.