MOGADISHU, Somalia — The American military launched an airstrike today targeting the head of al-Qaida in Somalia, a U.S. defense official said. The head of an Islamic insurgent group said the attack killed its leader.

Islamist leader Aden Hashi Ayro, believed to be the head of al-Qaida in Somalia, was killed when the airstrike struck his house in the central Somali town of Dusamareeb, about 300 miles north of Mogadishu, said Sheik Muqtar Robow, a spokesman for the Islamic al-Shabab militia.

Another commander and seven others were also killed, Robow said. Six more people were wounded, two of whom later died, said resident Abdullahi Nor.

"Our brother martyr Aden Hashi, has received what he was looking for — death for the sake of Allah — at the hands of the United States," Robow told The Associated Press by phone.

Capt. Jamie Graybeal, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command, confirmed there was a U.S. airstrike early today in the vicinity of Dusamareeb. Another U.S. military spokesman, Bob Prucha, said the attack was against a "known al-Qaida target and militia leader in Somalia." Both declined to provide further details.

But another U.S. defense official confirmed that the military launched a missile strike targeting Ayro at about 3 a.m.

BAGHDAD — A car bomb aimed at a U.S. patrol in Baghdad today killed at least nine Iraqi civilians and wounded 26, police said.The U.S. military said it killed 17 militants amid escalating fighting in the Shiite slum Sadr City.The explosion occurred about 9:15 a.m. in a crowded commercial area in eastern Baghdad, police officials said, adding the nine killed included three women and a child. The U.S. military said no American soldiers were killed, although three were wounded in the attack.Health officials also said clashes in Baghdad's Shiite militia stronghold of Sadr City killed eight people, including two women and a child, and wounded 18 others, including women and children.