U.S. carries out 3 drone strikes against extremists in Somalia

MOGADISHU, Somalia — U.S. forces say they 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 killed several extremist fighters, a spokeswoman for the U.S. military command in Africa said Sunday. With these three attacks, the U.S. has carried out 26 attacks in Somalia against extremist targets in 2017, she said.

The latest U.S. strikes were carried out in coordination with Somalia’s government, she said.

The first strike happened Saturday at approximately 4:30 p.m. local Somalia time, and it killed one fighter for the extremist group al-Shabab, said a U.S. Africa command statement. The strike occurred near Gaduud, about 250 miles southwest of the capital, Mogadishu.

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 approximately 3 a.m. against alShabaab, in the Lower Shabelle region about 40 miles west of Mogadishu.

Al-Shabab, considered to be 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.

It was Somalia’s worstever attack and one of the world’s deadliest in years.

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 Islamic State group in Somalia. The first was earlier this month.

The Islamic State group has emerged in Somalia over the past two years, and many of its fighters have defected from al-Shabab.