USA airstrikes bombarded an al-Shabab training camp in Somalia Saturday, killing more than 150 militant fighters who were preparing to launch a large-scale attack, likely against African or US personnel, the Pentagon said Monday.
Advertisement
Somalia has been the scene of deadly clashes between government forces and al-Shabab militants since 2006.
Another intelligence official said al-Shabab members training there were planning to attack a drone base in the region. No civilians were known to be among the casualties, he said. “The fact that al-Shabab feels emboldened enough to gather so many together in one place, these are hardly signs of a group on the run”.
This is the US’s strongest attack against al-Shabaab, as it has only targeted its leaders and never its junior fighters before.
The arrival of the Islamic State in Libya has sparked fears that the group’s reach could spread to other North African countries, and the United States is increasingly trying to prevent that.
US drones are based at Camp Lemonier in neighbouring Djibouti, from where they have been dispatched to kill individual al-Shabaab commanders.
“The attack will severely minimize the threat of Shabaab”.
Be proactive – Use the “Flag as Inappropriate” link at the upper right corner of each comment to let us know of abusive posts. Since then, however, they have been unable to stop other violence: assaults on AU forces, including one that killed up to 200 Kenyan soldiers in January, frequent suicide attacks on civilians in Mogadishu, and an unsuccessful attempt last month to bring down an airliner with a bomb.
At least 150 al-Shabab militants have been killed in a recent air raid conducted by the USA in Somalia, according to reports.
Earlier on Monday, six people were wounded when a bomb planted inside a notebook computer exploded at an airport in the small central town of Beledweyne.
Advertisement
Somalia’s Foreign Minister Abdusalam Omer said the Somali intelligence agency had provided information about the camp to the United States in the run-up to the attack. The airstrike comes as Somalia struggles to develop a domestic counterterrorism apparatus to combat the group. In 2011, al-Shabab was driven out of the nation’s capital by AMISOM troops and government forces.
