U.S. TARGETS EXTREMISTS WITH 3 DRONE STRIKES

MOGADISHU U.S. forces say they have carried out three drone strikes within 24 hours in Somalia, stepping up their campaign against the Islamist extremist rebels of al-Shabab and the Islamic State group.

The strikes by unmanned drones killed several extremist fighters, a spokeswoman for the U.S. military command in Africa told The Associated Press Sunday.

With these three attacks, the U.S. has now carried out 26 attacks in Somalia against extremist targets in 2017, she said.

The latest U.S. strikes were carried out in co-ordination with Somalia’s government, the spokeswoman said.

The first of the three U.S. strikes was conducted after al-Shabaab attacked a convoy of U.S. and Somali forces, the command said.

“We assess no civilians were anywhere near the site,” said the spokeswoman.