Zakariya Ismail Ahmed
Hersi, Al-Shabaab's intelligence chief, was captured in a house near the
town of El Wak, Somali military commander Isack Hussein Mursal told
state-run radio.
He was a close associate
of former Al-Shabaab leader Ahmed Abdi Godane, who was killed in a U.S.
airstrike near Barawe city in September.
Somali forces captured Hersi and his driver without confrontation, officials said. The U.S. State Department had issued a $3 million reward for information leading to his capture.
"Zakariya has told us
following his capture that he left Al-Shabaab a year and half ago and
since then was looking for to surrender to the Somali government," Col.
Abas Ibrahim Gurey, a senior military official, told CNN.
The capture comes after militants with the group, which is linked to al Qaeda, attacked a large African Union base in Mogadishu
on Thursday, killing three Ugandan soldiers and a civilian.
Al-Shabaab has said that attack was revenge for the U.S. airstrike that killed Godane. The State Department had offered a $7 million reward for information on Godane's location.
http://edition.cnn.com/2014/12/27/world/africa/somalia-al-shabaab/index.html?hpt=hp_t4
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