According to a new statement by US Africa Command (Africom), the US
carried out an airstrike against Dheerow Sanle, in southwestern Somalia
on Wednesday, killing 10 people whom they labeled members of the al-Shabaab movement.
Details were scant in the statement, which mostly read as boilerplate
from the usual airstrike statements. None of the slain were identified
beyond being militants, and Africom said no civilians were killed or
injured.
They always say no civilians were killed in these statements, and it’s
not always true. In general, civilian reports out of Somalia are slow to
emerge, and likely won’t emerge for days, long after the official
statement.
Officially, the statement said the attack was designed to increase
pressure on al-Shabaab and to limit their freedom of movement across
Somalia. This is the first US strike in Somalia of 2019, after 47
strikes in 2018.
Yet another American war crime.
What possible legal justification can there be for the US to bomb Somalia? And what moral justification can there be for the use of robots to kill from safe positions?