MOGADISHU: Somalia’s government on Wednesday offered an amnesty to fighters with al-Shabab, the Islamic extremist group whose leader was targeted on Monday night in a US air strike.

Following a cabinet-level security meeting, Somali authorities were giving al-Shabab militants 45 days to take up the offer, Security Minister Khalif Ahmed Ereg told reporters in the Somali capital of Mogadishu.

He said the government “will create a better livelihood to build their future for those who meet the deadline.”

The offer of amnesty comes after a US air strike that targeted al-Shabab leader Ahmed Abdi Godane, whose fate remains unclear as US and Somali officials assess the outcome of the attack.

Somali forces, backed by African Union troops, last week launched an offensive on al-Shabab’s last strongholds in southern Somalia, where the militants are believed to plot attacks across Somalia that have left scores dead this year. Al-Shabab is believed to have thousands of fighters in its ranks, fighting to impose Islamic law on Somalia, but the group faces increasing military pressure from African Union forces that helped to oust the militants from Mogadishu in 2011.

Al-Shabab has since resorted to tactics that include suicide bombings and assassinations of government officials.

Godane, the group’s spiritual leader, claimed responsibility for a deadly attack a year ago on an upscale mall in neighbouring Kenya, whose government has sent its army troops to fight al-Shabab in Somalia.

Somali authorities are trying to verify whether Godane, 37, was killed or wounded in the US strike, government spokesman Ridwaan Abdiwali said on Wednesday.

Somalia’s government is certain that the strike hit “a gathering” of leaders of the Islamic extremist al-Shabab group and they are “in the process” of confirming who was hit in the attack on Monday night, he said.

Abdiwali praised US support in the war on the militant group, saying close military collaboration had helped to weaken al-Shabab.

Published in Dawn, September 4th, 2014