A U.S. born Islamic insurgent believed to be one of the masterminds of the terror attack on a Kenyan university earlier this year, surrendered to the Somali military at the weekend.

A senior official disclosed this in Mogadishu on Monday, on condition of anonymity.

He said Abdimalik Jones had recently defected from al-Shabaab to fighters backing Islamic State when he surrendered near the southern port town of Barawe in the Lower Shabelle region.

Meanwhile, The Mayor of Barawe, Hussein-Mohamed Barre, confirmed that Jones was found as he was hiding himself somewhere near Barawe after defecting from al Shabaab.

Barre said the troops ordered him to surrender and he did so.

The mayor confirmed that Jones was due to be sent to Mogadishu for further investigation.

Some 148 people, most of them students, were killed when al-Shabaab militants stormed the Garissa University campus in north-eastern Kenya in April.