Aden Hashi Farah Ayro

Aden Hashi Farah Aero (Somali: Aaden Xaashi Faarax Ceyroow, Arabic: آدن حاشي فارح عيرو) (1976^[1] – 1 May 2008^[2]) also known as Abu Muhsin al-Ansari^[3] was a military commander of Al Shabaab. He was from the Ayr sub-clan,^[4] part of the Habar Gidir, which is a branch of the Hawiye clan. He was reportedly married to Halima Abdi Issa Yusuf. He was among several militants killed in a U.S. airstrike on 1 May 2008.

Aden Hashi Farah Aero was said to have gone to Afghanistan to train with al-Qaeda before 2001, according to Matthew Bryden of International Crisis Group.^{[5][citation needed]}

According to International Crisis Group, it was after this stint with the terror organisation that he went back to Somalia in 2003 to set up a network with other al-Itihaad al-Islamiya veterans to assassinate foreigners and opponents, culminating in the eventual deaths of four foreign aid workers and at least ten Somali former military and police officers. On 10 June 2006, The Guardian repeated this story by stating, "An unnamed network run by one of Aweys's proteges, Aden Hashi Farah "Aero", has been linked to the murder of four western aid workers and more than a dozen Somalis who allegedly cooperated with counter-terror organisations."^[6]

In July 2004, the CIA received a tip about the presence of bomb-maker Abu Taha al-Sudani in a Mogadishu compound owned by Ayro. A raid, led by militia loyal to factional leader Mohamed Qanare, ensued, but both al-Sudani and Ayro were absent, resulting in the death of Ayro's brother-in-law during a brief firefight.^[7]

In the aftermath of the raid, Ayro initiated a clandestine recruitment effort in Mogadishu to establish a militia "to protect Islam and save the Somali nation from infidels." Clan elders initially perceived it as an attempt by Ayro to gain personal bodyguards. Ayro strategically targeted marginalized young men, offering them employment, a sense of belonging, and self-esteem by emphasizing the defense of religion and nation against external threats. By early 2006, al-Shabab had transformed into a disciplined fighting force, with most recruits being nationalists rather than religious extremists. They pledged allegiance to the Islamic Courts Union (ICU), known for its credibility in healthcare, education, dispute resolution, and law and order. Yet, a select group of elite al-Shabaab fighters, primarily from Ayro's Ayr sub-clan, were deeply loyal to their leader and committed to establishing an Islamic caliphate in Somalia.

In June 2006, al-Shabab fighters led the ICU to victory in Mogadishu over a U.S.-backed alliance of self-styled anti-terrorist warlords. Once in power, Ayro seized the position of military chief of all ICU forces and oversaw the expansion of al-Shabaab into a much larger force, absorbing other ICU militias. It was during this time that al-Shabaab was formally created. Ayro, his mentor Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, and other hardliners were said to have used al-Shabab to intimidate, threaten and sideline scores of moderate ICU leaders.^[8][9]

By the time Ethiopia launched its invasion of Somalia in December 2006 to oust Somali Islamists from power, as many as 5,000 young men were thought to have been recruited into al-Shabaab in Mogadishu alone. Notably, al-Shabaab's command structure had become decentralized, with the group broken down into cells. This decentralization allowed regional al-Shabaab commanders greater autonomy to plan and execute attacks as they deemed necessary. For example, Ayro's former deputy in the ICU, Mukhtar Robow, was said to have led a cell in his home region of Bay, targeting Ethiopian and government troops protecting the Somali parliament in the town of Baidoa. Another high-ranking militant in the ICU, Hassan Turki, was believed to be leading an al-Shabab cell in his stronghold in the Lower Juba region.^[10]

Theresa Whelan, the U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defense for African affairs, in a press conference on 17 January 2007, said she believed the U.S. AC-130 gunship raid which occurred on 8 January had killed eight fighters linked to Aden Hashi Farah Aero. Aero was believed to have been wounded in the attack and perhaps killed.^[11] However, on 7 March 2007 an audio tape issued by Aden Hashi Aero was sent to the Koran Radio station in Mogadishu.^[12]

Following his injury in the U.S. airstrike, Ayro vanished. Due to al-Shabaab's decentralized command structure, it was not clear who was in overall charge of the group. In March 2007, al-Qaeda named Ayro as its top leader in Somalia, suggesting that he was still engaged in al-Shabaab activities and communicating with his commanders in Mogadishu from his hideout. Ayro briefly returned to Mogadishu in August 2007 but was asked to leave by concerned clan elders because they feared he would "bring more trouble to everybody". He was reported to have been constantly on the move, seldom staying in one place for long, typically spending only a few days in each location. In December 2007, a Somali website announced Ahmed Godane, known as Abu Zubeyr, as the official Emir of al-Shabaab.^[13][14][15]

On 1 May 2008, Aero and another important leader of the al-Shabaab, Sheikh Muhyadin Omar, were killed by a U.S. airstrike on his house in the town of Dhusamareb.^[16] Paul Salopek reported in the Chicago Tribune that jihadists vowed to kill every foreigner in Somalia in response.^[17]

• Islamic Courts Union

• U.S. Airstrike Kills Somali Accused of Links to Al-Qaeda The Washington Post May 2, 2008