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Suspected US airstrikes pound southern Somalia

October 17, 2017 at 12:56 pm

A suspected United States aircraft targeted Somalia yesterday, Somali Press Online reported.

The airstrikes targeted a key Al-Shabaab controlled town in Somalia’s southern Lower Shabelle region, residents told Somali Press Online. It is not confirmed whether it was a military aircraft or an unmanned drone.

An Al-Shabaab convoy travelling in the outskirts of the region was targeted. The number of casualties as a result of the strike is unknown.

The United States Department of Defence has not released an official statement however it regularly conducts drone strikes in Somalia, killing scores of people.

President Donald Trump has given the Central Intelligence Agency and the US Military broader authority to target inside Somalia, considering parts of the country “temporary battlefield”.

The US has killed 510 people and injured 54 since 2007, according to the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, an organisation that tracks US drone strikes across the globe.

Read: 40 Somalis injured in truck bombing airlifted to Turkey