MK254
JF-Expert Member
- May 11, 2013
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WANTED: Mohammed Kuno.
The security minister in Somalia's Jubaland region has confirmed that the suspected mastermind of the deadly assault on Kenya's Garissa University College has been killed.
Mohamed Kuno was killed with four other people, Abdirashid Janan said at a media briefing in the Somali port city of Kismayo.
The Jubaland government had the bodies of the men, he added.
In 2015, the Kenyan-born mastermind of the massacre of 148 people in Garissa defected from al Qaeda-affiliated al Shabaab to a pro-ISIS faction, intelligence reports indicated.
Kuno alias Gamadhere, previously al Shabaab Lower Juba commander, joined the more extremist and violent faction in the last week of November.
Kuno defected with 1,200 fighters, who include Jaysh Ayman. They hid in Boni Forest in Kenya and the Ras-Kamboni areas in Somalia.
Victims of the April 2 terror attack on Garissa University College included 142 students.
Kenya had offered a $215,000 (Sh21.9 million) reward for any information that may lead to Kuno’s capture.
He is a close confidant of Sheikh Muumin, the self-declared Somali leader of an al Shabaab faction that joined an ISIS faction in Somalia.
Garissa massacre mastermind Mohammed Kuno killed -Juba security minister