Alleged mastermind of Kenya mall attack killed in U.S. drone strike

U.S. officials confirm that Adan Garar, said by U.S. intelligence to be the mastermind of the Westgate Mall attack in Nairobi, Kenya, was killed in a drone strike this week.

CBS News national security correspondent David Martin reports that the strike was carried out Thursday in southern Somalia. Garar was traveling in a car hit by Hellfire missiles from a Predator drone.

At least 67 people were killed in the 2013 attack.

Al-Shabab claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it was in retaliation for Kenya's sending of troops into Somalia.

A senior Kenyan official, who insisted on anonymity because he wasn't authorized to give the information to the media, told the Associated Press that Garar was also suspected of planning failed attacks on Kenya's coast and in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, last year.

Anti-terror police foiled a planned attack in the coastal city of Mombasa after they intercepted a car packed with explosives in March 2014, according to Kenyan authorities. According to police, al-Shabab militants had planned simultaneous attacks on the international airport in Mombasa, the ferry crossing and a supermarket. The car laden with explosives was to be detonated on a ferry.

Al-Shabab, an Islamic extremist group, has vowed to inflict violent attacks on Kenya and Uganda because the two countries have contributed troops to the African Union force supporting the government in Somalia.