U.S. airstrike takes out top-ranked al-Shabab leader

A U.S. airstrike over the weekend successfully neutralized a top-ranked official with the Islamic terror group al-Shabab.

The Pentagon on Monday confirmed that U.S. Africa Command (Africom) conducted the strike on Saturday and killed militant leader Abdullahi Nadir, according to The Hill. No civilians died or sustained injuries in the attack.

Al-Shabab controls large territories in the country's central and southern regions and the group remains the greatest threat to the government in Mogadishu.

"Al-Shabaab is the largest and most kinetically active al-Qaeda network in the world and has proved both its will and capability to attack U.S. forces and threaten U.S. security interests," Africom said in a statement, per the outlet.

"U.S. Africa Command, alongside its partners, continues to take action to prevent this malicious terrorist group from planning and conducting attacks on civilians."

American forces have stepped up their efforts against the terror group as President Joe Biden announced earlier this year that Washington would redeploy troops to the country, reversing the Trump-era withdrawal.