US officials are claiming three ‘al-Shabaab militants’ were killed Wednesday in an airstrike carried out in southern Somalia, some 75 km west of the capital city of Mogadishu. There has been no independent confirmation of the incident.
Details on the attack are still coming in, but US officials said the attack was done both in coordination with the Somali government, and with “help” from African Union forces, who the statement dubbed “peacekeepers.”
This is the latest in a growing series of US airstrikes in Somalia in recent months, as President Trump has granted US commanders in the region an increasing amount of leeway in ordering attacks.
Al-Shabaab remains a substantial force in Somalia, mostly in the country’s southern half, and mostly in rural areas. Despite many years of African Union intervention and now growing US involvement, the Somali government itself still has little control outside of the capital city.
Let’s go back to “W”‘s intervention in Somalia in 2006, getting rid of a government which actually helped calm the situation. The number of refugees from Somalia in Yemen (!!!) is over 250 000 according to Kathy Kelly, and the USA has not been of any assistance in any way to Somalia.