Somalia: US drone strike targets Al-Shabaab

The Somali National Army patrol the area for extremist group Al-Shabaab on 22 March 2014 [United Nations Photo/Flickr]

The US conducted an airstrike in Somalia against Al-Shabaab fighters on Tuesday, reported ABC News.

The airstrike was executed 300 miles southwest of the capital, Mogadishu. There were no official accounts on the number of Al-Shabaab fighters killed or any civilian casualties.

New legal authorities granted by President Donald Trump in late March, considered certain portions of Somalia “temporary battlefields” allowing the military to launch what amounts to six-month wars without congressional approval.

Read: 15 killed in militant attack in Somalia

This is the second such strike by US forces this week; the first took place on Sunday.

There have been 44 confirmed US airstrikes with a total of 466 people killed according to the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, an organisation which maps such attacks.

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