Somali authorities have called it a suicide attack, and although no group has officially taken credit for it the vehicle was parked outside a hotel often frequented by Somali politicians and which was itself the target of an attack by militants in August 2010.

Officials said they hadn’t yet confirmed that it was a US drone, but the US is the only nation that flies drones in Somali airspace. US-backed African Union troops recovered the drone’s wreckage.

There were no injuries in the crash. A police officer with the self-proclaimed Somali government said a similar surveillance drone crashed into a home just outside the camp last year.

US drones have been used for both surveillance and targeted assassinations inside Somalia over the past several months. Officials have suggested that the US drone presence is likely to grow in the future, as more drones will be operating in both Somalia and nearby Yemen.

President Obama praised the attack, saying it proved that the US “will spare no effort to secure the safety of our citizens and to bring their captors to justice.” He was also reported to have praised Defense Secretary Leon Panetta for the attack at his State of the Union speech Tuesday night, saying “Leon. Good job tonight.”

The nine people killed were all reported to have been involved in the kidnapping, but their actual identities were not clear. Officials say that none of them had any known links with any militant factions in Somalia, nor any links with any pirate groups. Despite this, President Obama termed them all “criminals and pirates.”

The Seals from the offensive were reportedly from the same unit as those who attacked Abbottabad, Pakistan last year and assassinated Osama bin Laden.

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The AU troops fought with al-Shabaab forces and by the end of the day the AU spokesman claimed they had captured a portion of Mogadishu University as well as a milk factory in the area. No indication if the milk factory was operational.

The operation wasn’t aimed at the milk factory, of course. Instead the AU says it intends to capture Basra Road, a key supply route north of Mogadishu. So far there is no indication that they have made much progress on that front.

The AU mission has gained a considerable number of troops in the last few months, with influxes of additional forces from Djibouti and Kenya. This suggests that they may be planning to be more aggressive in launching offensives around the nation.

Some, including Kenya and its ally, the United States, accused Eritrea in November of delivering arms to al Shabab, an Islamic militant group battling a U.S. drone war, proxy war, and a host of foreign African fighters backed by the U.S.

Despite denials from Eritrea, the accusations led the United Nations Security Council to impose new sanctions on Eritrea in December. The resolution passed with 13 votes in favor of expanding sanctions imposed on Eritrea two years ago, while Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki’s government accused the Security Council of doing America’s bidding.

The U.S. is running CIA blacksites as prisons in Somalia and supporting thuggish militias to fight al-Shabab, all while conducting covert kill/capture raids with Joint Special Operations Command forces. The U.S.-supported regimes of Kenya, Uganda, Burundi, and others are joining the fight against the Somali militants as Predator and Reaper drones unleash airstrikes launched from bases in Ethiopia, Djibouti, and Seychelles.

The Obama administration has garnered support for aggression against Somalia’s Shabab from most of the neighboring countries, with the exception of Eritrea, putting extra significance on its already strategic location. In 2009, the U.S. threatened Eritrea over its alleged support of the group, warning it could face “the same fate as Taliban-controlled Afghanistan in the wake of the September 11 attacks.”

The portion of the country is relatively small, but includes the key central town of Beledweyne, which the Ethiopian military occupied over the weekend. The town is near Ethiopia’s borders and has often fell during the intermittent Ethiopian invasion.

With the absorption of the Kenyan troops the AU force could become as large as 17,731 fighters, though this is still pending UN approval as much of the force is funded by the international community.

Despite the ever-growing size of the force, the AU still has no territory outside of Mogadishu, and it is unclear if they will be able to retain control over the region handed over by Ethiopia. Since Beledweyne has been occupied at least three times by Ethiopia and always fell within months to one insurgent faction or another, history is not on the AU’s side.

It is the third time the Ethiopian military has conquered Beledweyne in a major battle, with previous attacks in 2006 and 2008. The town has also regularly changed hands amongst internal factions.

Al-Shabaab has confirmed withdrawing from the town, but says that their forces are massing around the outside and planning to retake it. Reports also have civilians fleeing in anticipation of another battle to contest the town’s fate.

Beledweyne is one of several central towns often considered the “key” to offensives against the rest of the country, and as such is commonly targeted during offensives. Ethiopia is the most recent nation to have invaded Somalia, returning in force last month after ending their last occupation in 2009.

Prime Minister David Cameron has also claimed that Somalia “directly threatens British interests” so long as its self-declared government doesn’t have control over it, and is also pushing humanitarian operations.

Several military operations are already ongoing in Somalia, with Ethiopia and Kenya both invading in recent months and the African Union already occupying much of the capital city of Mogadishu. US drones and French ships also regularly attack the nation.

In an attempt, apparently, to build support for the upcoming operation, British International Development Minister Andrew Mitchell said large numbers of British citizens are in Somalia now training a terrorists, saying there are more British trainees there than anywhere else in the world.

The attack, but not the toll. Kenya’s Army statement said the attack killed “17 al-Shabaab fighters” and that there were no civilian casualties. Witnesses however say that the casualties were all civilian and included children. Al-Shabaab denied losing any fighters to the attack.

“The cowardly enemy has targeted civilians in Hosingow and killed more than 10 innocent civilians,” reported one of the regional Sheikhs, and al-Shabaab promised to take revenge for the attack.

Witnesses say the bombs hit a street in the town, but that some of the bombs also hit some nearby homes, which is where the casualties occurred. The identities of the victims have not been made public yet.