U.S. carries out 3 drone strikes on Somali extremists

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

The strikes by unmanned drones killed several extremist fighters, a spokesperson 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, she said.

The first strike happened Saturday at about 4:30 p.m. local Somalia time and it killed one fighter for the extremists group, al-Shabab, said a U.S. Africa command statement. The strike occurred near Gaduud, about 400 kilometres southwest of the capital, Mogadishu, it said.

The U.S. strike came after al-Shabaab attacked a convoy of U.S. and Somali forces, it said.

The second strike occurred Sunday at about 3 a.m. against al-Shabaab, in the Lower Shabelle region about 64 kms west of the capital Mogadishu.

Al-Shabab, the deadliest Islamic extremist group in Africa, has been blamed for the massive truck bombing in Mogadishu last month that killed more than 350 people.

Al-Shabab has pledged allegiance to al-Qaida “and is dedicated to providing safe haven for terrorist attacks throughout the world,” said the spokesperson, adding that al-Shabab “has publicly committed to planning and conducting attacks against the U.S. and our partners in the region.”

The third strike was against the Islamic State group in Somalia’s northern Puntland area, she said. It happened at about 9 a.m. Sunday.

This is the second U.S. strike against the ISIL group in Somalia. The first was earlier this month. The ISIL group has emerged in Somalia over the past two years and many of its fighters have defected from al-Shabab.