Somalia: US kills 27 Al-Shabaab terrorists in airstrike

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – An initial assessment shows that an airstrike carried out over Somalia by the US Africa Command (USAC) on Sunday killed 27 Al-Shabaab jihadist insurgents who had been attacking Somali national forces, USAC said in a press statement Wednesday. The strike carried out near Buulobarde was requested by the Somali federal government, and there were no reported civilian casualties, USAC said.

Highly involved in Somalia’s ongoing civil war, the Al-Shabaab militant insurgent group is Salafi jihadist and aims to establish a global caliphate based on Sunni Islamism. Al-Shabaab is allegiant to Al-Qaeda and is believed to be affiliated with the Boko Haram Islamic terror group as well.

USAC confirmed in its statement about the September 18 strike that “US forces are authorized to conduct strikes in defense of designated partners.” In this case, USAC said, the defensive strike allowed the Somali National Army and African Union Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS) to “regain the initiative and continue the operation to disrupt al-Shabaab in the Hiraan region of central Somalia.”

USAC emphasized that it takes “great measures” to prevent civilian casualties, unlike al-Shabbab terrorists who carry out “indiscriminate” attacks on the civilian Somali population.

The USAC statement concluded with the affirmation that the US will continue to work with Somali and ATMIS partners to defeat al-Shabbab terrorists who “threaten the peace and stability of Somalia.”

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