Garissa university attack plotter ‘dead’

The leader of the attack on Garissa University in Kenya has been killed, officials in Somalia say.

Kenya's government said Mohamed Kuno was behind the attack in April 2015 that killed 148 people.

Regional forces in Somalia said Kuno was one of 16 people killed in a raid overnight in Kismayo, a port city in southern Somalia.

Four of those who died were reportedly senior members of the al-Shabab Islamist militant group.

The news was confirmed in a press conference held by Abdirashid Janan, the security minister in the Somali region of Jubaland, on Wednesday.

After the Garissa attack, Kenya's government put up a $215,000 (£149,000) reward for Kuno's capture.

A Kenyan-Somali, he was a headmaster at a madrassa, or Islamic school, in Garissa until 2007.

But then he crossed the border into Somalia to join the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC), which at one point controlled much of the country.

When the UIC collapsed, he joined the militant group Hizbul Islam, which in 2010 merged with al-Shabab.