Mogadishu: A top member of Somalia’s Al Qaida wing has been killed in an airstrike along with eight other people on Thursday, an Islamic insurgent group has said.

A spokesman for the Islamic Al Shabab militia says an overnight strike killed Aden Hashi Ayro at his house in Dusamareeb, a central Somali town.

Eight other people, including another top member, were killed and six were wounded in the attack.

Ayro is to believed to be the head of Al Qaida in Somalia and trained in Afghanistan before the September 11 attacks.

Several suspected extremists have been targeted by the US military in Somalia over the past year.