Somalia's military captures Al-Shabaab's chief,..[ 5075 ]

Somalia: Al-Shabaab commander captured

By Omar Nor and Susanna Capelouto, CNN

December 27, 2014 -- Updated 1456 GMT (2256 HKT)

(CNN) -- Somali government forces on Saturday captured a top commander of the Islamist militant group Al-Shabaab, two of the country's military officials said.
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Zakariya Ismail Ahmed Hersi, Al-Shabaab's intelligence chief, was captured near the town of El-Wak, Somali military commander Isack Hussein Mursal told state-run radio.

He was a close associate of former Al-Shabaab leader Ahmed Abdi Godane, who was killed in a U.S. airstrike, near Barawe city in September.

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Somali forces captured Zakariya and his driver without confrontation in a house in El Wak, officials said. They had issued a a $3 million reward for his capture.

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"Zakariya has told us following his capture that he left Al-Shabaab a year and half ago and since then was looking for to surrender to the Somali government," Col. Abas Ibrahim Gurey, a senior military official, told CNN.

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The capture comes after militants with the group, which is linked to al Qaeda, attacked a large African Union base in Mogadishu on Thursday, killing three Ugandan soldiers and a civilian.

Al-Shabaab has said that attack was revenge for the U.S. airstrike that killed Godane.

Pierre Meilhan and Margot Haddad contributed to this story