Officials: US drone strike killed Somali insurgent
By KATHARINE HOURELD, Associated Press
Jan 22, 2012 12:52 AM CST

Somali insurgents say that a U.S. drone strike killed an al-Qaida official fighting alongside them in Somalia.

A statement from the insurgent al-Kataib media foundation late Saturday says that three missiles fired from an unmanned aerial vehicle hit Bilal al-Berjawi's car on the outskirts of Mogadishu. Berjawi was a Lebanese and British citizen who grew up in West London.

The strike was confirmed by a U.S. official in Washington. He asked for anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

Berjawi was a close associate of late al-Qaida operative Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, who directed the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

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Associated Press Writer Kim Dozier contributed to this report from Washington, D.C. .