Several US officials said on Friday he and two others were killed.
Hassan Ali Dhoore was targeted in the US airstrike Thursday, but the US military was still assessing the results, Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said in a statement late on Friday.
Other US officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss the operation, told the Associated Press it occurred about 20 miles south of Jilib in southern Somalia not far from the Kenya border, killing Dhoore and two others.
Cook said Dhoore helped facilitate a deadly Christmas Day 2014 attack at Mogadishu International Airport and a March 2015 attack at the Maka al-Mukarramah Hotel. US citizens were among those killed in the two attacks, he said.
One senior official also said that Dhoore was believed to be involved in plotting more attacks that would have targeted US citizens.
Cook said Dhoore, who was also a member of al-Qaeda, worked for al-Shabab’s security and intelligence wing.
Killing Dhoore “would be a significant blow to al-Shabab’s operational planning and ability to conduct attacks.”
In the Christmas 2014 assault, gunmen attacked the African Union’s main base leading to an exchange of gunfire between militants and soldiers that killed at least nine people, including three soldiers.
Three months later, gunmen from the al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabab group launched an attack in the reception area of the hotel in the Somali capital, killing at least 24, including six attackers.