TerrorismU.S. air strikes kills 150 al-Shabaab militants in Somalia
Strikes by U.S. drone ad manned aircraft has killed 150 al-Shabaab fighters in Somalia, the Pentagon said on Monday. The strikes were conducted on Saturday against the Raso Camp, 120 miles north of Mogadishu, where the al-Qaeda-affiliated Islamist group built a training facility.
Flight deck shooter signaling an F/A 18 for launch // Source: wikipedia.org
Strikes by U.S. drone and manned aircraft have killed 150 al-Shabaab fighters in Somalia, the Pentagon said on Monday.
The strikes were conducted on Saturday against the Raso Camp, 120 miles north of Mogadishu, where the al-Qaeda-affiliated Islamist group built a training facility. “The fighters who were scheduled to depart the camp posed an imminent threat to U.S. and African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) forces in Somalia,” Pentagon officials said in a statement.
The Wall Street Journal reports that U.S. defense officials had been monitoring the camp for several weeks and said that more than 200 fighters were planning attacks against U.S. and African Union forces.
“We continue to assess the results of the operation and will provide additional information as and when appropriate,” the statement read.
White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said that the mission “is exactly the kind of counterterrorism strategy the president has laid out.”
Earnest added, however, that the Obama administration is unaware if the airstrikes had injured or killed any civilians in the area, USA Today reports.
“Avoiding civilian casualties is a very, very high priority, both for moral reasons, but also because terrorist organizations like al-Shabab will just use that for recruiting purposes.”
