According to African Command, the US carried out an airstrike against Saaxa Weyne on the Somali coast Thursday, killing at least five people, all of whom were labeled suspects. They insist no civilians were slain.
Air Force officials said that the primary target of the strike was suspected of involvement in al-Shabaab’s financing. They added the attack proved US commitment to its partners in Somalia.
Emphasis of the strikes as proof of commitment has been repeated in recent US strikes in Somalia, coming as the US ground troops continue to withdraw. This may raise expectations that the US will keep attacking sites in Somalia just to say they remain involved.
Intelligence on the ground for US strikes in remote countries often isn’t great to begin with, which is usually a lot of why troops are present there. As the troops leave, the risk grows that future US strikes won’t hit intended targets.
guilty until proven innocent
immoral US justice
“all of whom were labeled suspects”
“primary target of the strike was suspected of involvement in al-Shabaab’s financing.”
Is that part of the lessening of the rules of engagement? “Suspects” are fair game?
Antiwar.com should publish best estimate of cost of each strike they report. After a while readers will understand what is really the reason for the strikes. A running total by country would also help.
5 more black lives that don’t matter.
“…the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today: my own government”
Dr King.
They hate us for our freedoms not the indiscriminate bombing.
So they were targeted due to “financing” terrorism? Was the target some kind of bank building? No?
Were they sitting on a pile of gold? Smuggling in Kenyan or other foreign currency? Smuggling goods in and out to “finance” terror?
Since nobody cares about this, I guess they don’t bother to make up anything very believable. Usually propaganda lies have some granular details to make you think it might be true. It is very hard to understand how killing these African “financiers” makes us any safer. Does Wall St. fear competition?