afrol News, 19 October - Somali insurgents are searching for the wreckage of the United States drone aircraft shot down off the southern port of Kismayo earlier today, Sheikh Hassan Yacqub, spokesman for the al Shabaab rebels in Kismayo.

The al Shabaab official said the drone was reportedly hit by anti-aircraft guns and had gone into the Indian Ocean near the port of Kismayo, where the intensive search is being carried out by the groups.

Reports said the suspected US aircraft had been flying in Kismayo airspace for days before being shot down earlier today. The US forces launched a helicopter raid in southern Somalia last month.

Meanwhile, a group of heavily-armed al Shebab fighters raided the graveyard destroying the grave of a prominent Sufi cleric, Sheikh Ali Ibar in the central town of Galhareri earlier today.

Reports said the group raided the graveyard where Sheikh Ali Ibar, a respected Sufi cleric who died before the 1991 collapse of the central government, was buried and smashed his mausoleum with sledgehammers.

Sufism is dominant Somalia. Its leading clerics have voiced concern that hardline Islamist groups such as the al Shebaab were slowly eradicating it.

The al Shebaab controls much of central and southern Somalia since the middle of last year.

By staff writer

© afrol News

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