US airstrike kills over 100 people in Somalia
A US airstrike killed more than 100 people in Somalia.
The US military said the victims were members of the Al-shabab terror group whose camp was targeted by the air raid in the African nation.
In a statement on Tuesday, the US Africa Command (AFRICOM) said the aerial raid was carried out 125 miles (200 kilometers) northwest of the capital Mogadishu, Press TV wrote.
“In coordination with the Federal Government of Somalia, US forces conducted an airstrike in Somalia against an Al-shabab camp on Tuesday, November 21, at approximately 10:30 a.m. local time (0730 GMT), killing more than 100 terrorists,” the statement read.
There have been many ambiguities surrounding US drone strikes and bombardments in the rural regions of Somalia, a wartorn country still reeling from more than two decades of terror activities. Local sources say such attacks have also inflicted casualties among civilians.
The latest airstrike is a clear indication of growing US military involvement in Somalia after US President Donald Trump ordered an expansion to the operations against the Alqaeda-linked group, approving more aggressive airstrikes in the country.
The Pentagon revealed on Thursday that the United States now has some 500 troops on the ground in Somalia even as it denies a “build-up” of forces in the country.
Somalia has been the scene of deadly clashes between government forces and Al-shabab since 2006.
The Takfiri group was forced out of the capital by the African Union troops in 2011 but still controls parts of the countryside and carries out attacks against government, military and civilian targets, seemingly at will, in Mogadishu and regional towns.
The group is just one of the challenges facing the new Somali government, which is still struggling to expand its authority beyond the capital and other selected areas. AFRICOM, which was established in 2008 under then US President George W. Bush, has been operating in at least 35 countries across the African continent.
The extent of the purges has unnerved rights groups and Turkey’s Western allies, who fear President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is using the abortive putsch as a pretext to stifle dissent.
The government, however, says the measures are necessary due to the gravity of the threats it is facing following the military coup attempt, in which 240 people were killed.