Somalia: 10 civilians killed in US-Somalia raid

Ten civilians were killed during a United States and Somalia Special Forces raid last week according to locals, UPI reported yesterday.

The raid was conducted on a village near Bariire in search for Al-Shabaab fighters associated with Al-Qaeda. US Africa Command are still conducting a post-raid investigation into the incident. The attack went on to kill innocent farmers working on their field.

Garowe Online named the farmers as: Ali Aden Ahmed, Abdifitah Yusuf Abdi, Juruum Mohamud Yusuf, Saney Jama Warsame, Ali Abdi Ibrahim, Abdulkadir Abdullahi Dirie, Isack Ali Harun, Mohamud Talasow Abdi, Hussein Khamis Moalim Abdi and Mohamud Mohamed Abdi.

“We are aware of the civilian casualty allegations near Bariire, Somalia. We take any allegations of civilian casualties seriously, and per standard, we are conducting an assessment into the situation to determine the facts on the ground,” US Africa Command said in a statement.

Baiire is a key town that Al-Shabaab uses as a strategic base to launch attacks in the Somali capital, Mogadishu.

Read: Somali militant group Al-Shabaab claims Mogadishu car bomb attack