An Islamist commander who was one of al Qaeda’s top members in Somalia was killed in an overnight American air strike; Aden Hashi Ayro was killed Thursday morning, according to American and Somali officials. The spokesman for the Islamic al-Shabab militia, Sheik Muqtar Robow, said the strike killed Aden Hashi Ayro, another commander and seven others at his house in the central Somali town of Dusamareeb, about 300 miles north of Mogadishu, the Associated Press reported.

The man who was thought to be one of the ferocious leaders in Somalia began his work as a car washer and he later became a top terrorist suspect involved in many atrocities, such as ripping up an Italian graveyard, killing a BBC journalist and planning suicide attacks in Somalia.

His death is a step forward and a key point in defeating the Islamists, as Somalia officials said.

“This will definitely weaken the Shebab,” said Mohamed Aden, consul for Somalia’s embassy in Nairobi, the capital of neighboring Kenya, according to the New York Times. “This will help with reconciliation. You can’t imagine how many Somalis are saying, ‘Yes, this is the one.’ The reaction is so good.”

Other al Qaeda feared and notorious figures killed or captured in US missions were: Mohamed Atef, killed in a US air strike in Afghanistan in November 2001, Abu Laith al-Libi, one of Osama bin Laden's top lieutenants, killed in a US missile strike, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, al Qaeda's leader in Iraq, was killed in a U.S. air raid in June 2006, Muharib Abdul Latif al-Jubouri, an al-Qaeda figure accused of involvement in the kidnapping of American journalist Jill Carroll, in May 2007, killed by the US military.