A US air strike on Thursday killed the leader of a Somali Islamist militia suspected of having links to al-Qaeda. Washington is hunting suspected terrorists as faltering efforts to bring peace to the shattered country continue.

Aden Hashi Ayro, who led militants blamed for a string of attacks on interim government forces and their Ethiopian allies, died in an air raid in central Somalia that killed at least 10, according to one of the militia’s chiefs.