Al Shabab Mastermind of Deadly Kenyan Mall Attack Killed by U.S. Drone

NYTimes WASHINGTON — The Pentagon on Wednesday said that airstrikes last week against the Shabab extremist group were successful, and that Adan Garar, a senior member of the group, had been killed in a drone strike on his vehicle.

The strike, carried out last Thursday as Mr. Garar traveled near Diinsoor, Somalia, “dealt another significant blow” to the Shabab group and killed Mr. Garar, who is believed to have planned the 2013 attack on the Westgate mall in Kenya, the Defense Department said.

For nearly a decade the United States has been trying to fight the Shabab through economic sanctions, missile strikes and commando raids. Last year, the Obama administration stepped up its efforts, and in September an American drone strike killed the leader the group, Ahmed Abdi Godane, one of the most wanted men in Africa.

At the time President Obama drew a direct link between the killing of Mr. Godane, who turned an obscure local militant group into one of the most fearsome Qaeda franchises in the world, and American plans to go after the leaders of the Islamic State in Iraq. The Pentagon press secretary at the time, Rear Admiral John Kirby, called the death of Mr. Godane “a major symbolic and operational loss” to the Shabab.