The United States Defense Department confirmed on Wednesday that it has killed Adan Garar, a leader of the Somali terror group Al-Shabaab, the BBC reported.

The Pentagon said Garar was hit by a drone equipped with Hellfire missiles in southern Somalia last Friday.

Garar was a suspect in the 2013 Westgate Mall attack in Nairobi that left 67 people dead.

The United States believes Garar was overseeing operations that “target U.S. persons and other Western interests,” the statement said.

He was a member of the security and intelligence wing and a “key operative responsible for coordinating Al-Shabaab’s external operations”, according to the Pentagon.

The operation took place about 150 miles (240 km) west of Mogadishu near the town of Dinsoor, according to the BBC.

The Defense Department said that Garar’s death “has dealt another significant blow to the Al-Shabaab terrorist organization in Somalia”.

American airstrikes in Somalia have several times targeted senior members of Al- Shabaab since the Nairobi attack.

In September, the United States killed the Somali group’s leader, Ahmed Godane, in an airstrike in Somalia.

Last month, the Somali terror group posted a video calling for attacks on western malls, naming the Mall of America in Minnesota as well as Canada’s massive West Edmonton Mall,  London’s famous Oxford Street shopping hub and two malls in France.