US drone strikes in Somalia kill 6 Al-Shabab rebels

MOGADISHU: The US has carried out three drone strikes in southern Somalia that killed six members of the Al-Shabab extremist group, the military said Wednesday, as efforts increase to combat Africa’s deadliest extremist organization.

A US Africa Command statement said Wednesday morning’s strikes occurred about 260 km south of the capital, Mogadishu. The statement, unlike previous ones, did not give more information on the location of the strikes.

“We assess no civilians were near the site,” a spokeswoman for the US Africa Command, Robyn Mack, told The Associated Press. She said they had no details on the Al-Shabab members killed.

The US military has carried out several airstrikes against the Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Shabab in the Horn of Africa nation since President Donald Trump approved expanded military operations against the group. The US said the latest strikes were carried out in coordination with Somalia’s government.

The US last week announced that two separate drone strikes had killed four Al-Shabab members.

Al-Shabab holds vast areas of rural Somalia after being chased out of major cities in recent years by a multinational African Union force and Somali forces. The group continues to threaten the fragile central government and carry out deadly attacks in neighboring countries, notably Kenya.