Kenyan security forces battle Al Shabaab terr
Kenyan security forces battle Al Shabaab terrReuters

The United States military carried out a missile strike in southern Somalia on Sunday to target a senior figure in the Al-Shabaab terrorist group who had ties to Al­-Qaeda, a senior defense official confirmed to Fox News.

It was unclear if the raid, in which witnesses said a vehicle was struck, was successful.

"We'll know more tomorrow," the official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Fox News.

The Associated Press (AP), citing a member of Al-Shabaab, reported that Sahal Iskudhuq, a member of the Somali rebel group, was killed in the strike, along with his driver.

Last October, a U.S. military strike hit a vehicle carrying senior members of the group, killing its top explosives expert.

Earlier that month, U.S. Navy SEALs raided a coastal Somali town to take down a Kenyan Al Shabaab member.

The SEALs withdrew before capturing or killing their target — Abdulkadir Mohamed Abdulkadir, known as Ikrima — who was identified as the lead planner of a plot by Al-Shabaab to attack Kenya's parliament building and the United Nations office in capital, Nairobi, in 2011 and 2012.

Al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for a deadly attack at a Nairobi shopping mall in September. Kenya has faced multiple attacks by Al-Shabaab terrorists, who want the country's military to leave Somalia.

Following the attack in Nairobi, Al-Shabaab warned that it planned to target Britain next.

A hate preacher wanted for recruiting terrorists to the group said terrorists are planning to murder innocent Britons on their mission to impose Islamic Sharia law across the world.