Date created : 20GMT/UTC/ZULU
United States military forces carried out an airstrike Saturday against Islamist group Al Shabaab, killing 52 militants in the country’s Middle Juba region, according to a statement from US Africa Command.
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According to the statement, the airstrike was “in response to an attack by a large group of Al Shabaab militants against Somali National Army Forces” near Jilib, 370 km southwest of Somalian capital Mogadishu. “We currently assess this airstrike killed fifty-two militants," read the statement.
Military officials from this East-African country and local elders said heavily-armed Al Shabaab militants had launched a dawn raid on a military camp on Saturday morning, followed by a heavy exchange of gunfire which lasted hours.
"The terrorists attacked Bulogagdud military base using heavy weaponry and explosives. The Somali military and Jubaland forces resisted the enemy before later retreating back from the base," Mohamed Abdikarin, a Somali military official told us at France24 by phone.
During the militants’ attack, "six soldiers were killed”, he added, “and two others died after a booby-trapped vehicle was detonated when the forces retook control of the base."
Sources at nearby villages said the militants looted the camp and took a military vehicle.
"Al Shabaab fighters secured control of the base and looted everything. They have set fire to the arms depots and took a military vehicle, but there were two choppers which carried out air strikes during the attack," traditional elder Hassan Rashid told us at France24.
The Pentagon has increased the rate of strikes in Somalia in recent years, partly because President Donald Trump loosened constraints on when the US military can take action against alleged terrorists.
Suleyman Isse, another witness at a nearby village, said the Somali forces later regrouped after receiving reinforcement from Kismayo and returned to the base.
"The Somali forces retook control of the base with the assistance of military helicopters belonging to the US Special Forces which were hovering over the area even after the attack," he said.
Shabaab militants claimed responsibility for the attack and claimed to have killed 42 soldiers.
The incident came a day after Al Shabaab said it had attacked Ethiopian troops in Somalia in an ambush attack on the road between the capital and the southwest town of Baidoa.
The Shabaab have been fighting to overthrow the internationally-backed government in Mogadishu.
On Tuesday, the militants carried out a deadly attack in neighbouring Kenya, which it has regularly targeted since Nairobi sent troops into Somalia. In this raid on a Nairobi hotel and office compound, four gunmen and a suicide bomber left 21 dead and injured 28.
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