Al-Qaida mastermind shot dead in Somalia

SOMALIA’S president said his security forces will defeat al-Qaida and its affiliate militants in the war-ravaged country, after they killed Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, Africa’s most wanted al-Qaida operative.

“We have overpowered al-Qaida and al Shabaab in Somalia, they are weak and now melting away,” said President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed whose Horn of Africa country has been without effective central government since 1991.

“(Mohammed’s) death is a major setback to al Shabaab and al-Qaida . . . He was a great burden to our government and to the neighbouring countries,” Ahmed told reporters.