Senior al-Shabab commander has appeared on camera to deny claims that he and other group leaders were killed in US air strikes last week at a training camp.
Mohamed Mire appeared in public in the village of Buqa Qabe where US and Somali authorities said he and several commanders were killed.
Mire dismissed the claim and described it as lies and propaganda while speaking to crowd of people who gathered to witness the execution of a man the group believe is Somali government soldier.
Somali officials said on Monday that five al-Shabab commanders had been killed in Saturday’s attack, including Mohamed Mire, the group’s Hiiraan governor, and Yusuf Ali Ugas, al-Shabab’s former Hiiraan chief.
Pentagon said it had carried out several strikes in Somalia’s Hiiraan region, in which it claimed more than 150 of the al-Qaeda-linked group’s fighters had been killed.
