In a move to stop what the US military said was an imminent threat against USA troops and African peacekeeping forces in Somalia, a US strike in Somalia killed as many as 150 suspected Al-Shabaab fighters, the Pentagon said Monday.
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Last month, al-Shabab claimed responsibility for a suicide bomber attack that ripped a hole in the side of an Emirati airliner, forcing the plane to land in Mogadishu.
Another intelligence official said al-Shabab members training there were planning to attack a drone base in the region.
However, a Pentagon statement published later Monday did not cite a casualty figure, adding that the United States was still assessing the “results of the operation”.
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.
According to data compiled by the think tank New America, there have been 15 special operation raids and 12 drone strikes in Somalia since 2003.
The US military said it had been monitoring the camp for several weeks before the strike and had gathered intelligence, including about an imminent threat posed by those in the camp.
USA airstrikes against an al-Shabab training facility in Somalia killed over 150 people on Saturday.
While sketchy details often emerge about individual drone strikes, the full scope of the US drone program – conducted by both the Defense Department and the Central Intelligence Agency – has always been shrouded from view. In the past two months, al-Shabab militants have claimed responsibility for attacks that have killed more than 150 people, including Kenyan soldiers stationed at a remote desert outpost and beachcombers in Mogadishu.
Nairobi-based security analyst Emmanuel Kisiangani told DW in February that Somali forces need “capacity building and funds” to support a domestic counterterrorism apparatus.
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“The fighters were there training, and were training for a large scale attack”.
