In a ‘self-defense strike’ that came days after the Al Shabab terror group killed five soldiers in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, and over a week after a deadly car bombing caused more than 100 fatalities, American forces killed 17 terrorists, US Africa Command said in a statement on Friday.
According to the Command’s news release, US forces conducted the strike, which occurred approximately 285 km northeast of Mogadishu, at the Somali government’s request after the Somali National Army forces came under attack from the terrorist group fighters in a remote area.
Previously on Wednesday, the Somali army killed at least 20 terrorists and took back Al Shabab-controlled towns in central Somalia in its latest offensive against the group the federal forces launched in August with support from the US and local clan militias.
According to US Africa Command, an airstrike in Somalia last month killed two members of al-Shabaab.
Labeling the group “the largest and most deadly Al Qaeda network in the world”, the statement adds that no civilians were hurt or killed in the strike.
In an attempt to counter Al Shabab in Somalia, President Joe Biden approved in May – 17 months after his predecessor Donald Trump withdrew forces – a Pentagon request to redeploy US troops to the area to support the government, noting his decision was made in light of increased Al Shabab attacks, including the 2020 attack in Kenya in which three Americans were killed.
Washington also imposed US imposed sanctions on November 1 on ISIS in Somalia and other actors that had sold weapons to Al Shabab, which has waged a decades-long insurgency against the federal government and controls a significant amount of territory, mostly in southern Somalia.
The aim of the Al Qaeda-affiliated group, which has thrived in part because of the country’s fractious and dysfunctional politics, is to overthrow the Somali government and replace it with a strict Shariah-based system.
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