Washington, June 30 (IANS) A Somali militant, who was wanted by the US and had a $5 million bounty on his head, has been killed in infighting among members of the Al Qaeda linked group Al-Shabaab, CNN reported.
Ibrahim Al Afghani, a senior member of Al-Shabaab, was killed along with another top member, Moalim Burhan, in a shooting between two factions of the group June 20, spokesman Abu Musab said.
Al Afghani was wanted for terrorism by the US State Department, which offered a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to his location.
A US administration official told CNN that Washington believes the report of his death to be true.
Infighting in Al-Shabaab has been going on between two groups, one loyal to founding member Ahmed Godane and another, smaller faction that supports foreign jihadists in Somalia. It began about a month ago when a member of the smaller group was targeted in a tea shop, allegedly by members from the other side, CNN said.
Al Afghani and Burhan were both members of the smaller faction.
The main Al-Shabaab group denies there is infighting and blames reports of a split on local media.
Musab said the two men were killed when Al-Shabaab fighters tried to arrest them for supporting foreign jihadists and the pair fought back. He said Al Afghani and Burhan were not killed intentionally.
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