US airstrike in Somalia against Shebab: 27 members killed

The US military said on Wednesday it had killed 27 fighters from the al-Shabaab jihadist group in an airstrike in support of a large-scale operation by the Somali regular army in the central part of the country in the Horn of Africa.

The raid took place on Sunday near Buloburde, about 200 kilometers north of the capital Mogadishu, as members of al-Qaeda-affiliated Shebaab targeted Somali soldiers, the US Africa Command (AFRICOM) said in a statement. .

“According to the initial estimate of the command, the strike killed 27 Shebab terrorists” and “no civilians were injured or killed,” the statement assured.

The US military said it carried out the airstrikes that day at the request of the Somali army and the Transitional Mission in Somalia (ATMIS, formerly AMISOM), the African Union’s peacekeeping force, as they conducted the largest-ever joint operation against the jihadists in last five years.

These “defensive strikes” “allowed the forces of the Somali National Army and the Transitional Mission in Somalia to regain the initiative and continue their operation to prevent Shebaab’s action in the Hiran district,” the text further underlines.

Sebab has been waging a guerrilla war against the federal government, which is supported by the international community, since 2007. Its fighters were driven from the country’s main cities, including Mogadishu, in 2011, but remain entrenched in vast swathes of the countryside and have stepped up attacks in recent months.

In May, U.S. President Joe Biden decided to restore the U.S. military presence in the country to help with operations against Shebab, approving a Pentagon request. He thus reversed the decision of his predecessor, Republican Donald Trump, at the end of his term, to withdraw most of the American forces deployed there.

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