War
on terror
US launches
airstrike on Somali militant leader – Pentagon
Published
time: December 29, 2014 22:09
Edited time: December 29, 2014 22:45
Edited time: December 29, 2014 22:45
Somalia security forces transport blind-folded
suspects detained after attackers from the militant group al-Shabaab invaded
the African Union's Halane base in Somalia's capital Mogadishu, December 26,
2014.(Reuters / Feisal Omar)
The
US military has conducted an airstrike targeting a senior al-Shabaab leader in
Somalia, according to Pentagon spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby.
"The
strike took place in the vicinity of Saakow, Somalia," the
Defense Department has announced.
The
military is still assessing the results of the operation, but at this time
there is no reason to believe there were any “civilian or bystander
casualties,” the Pentagon said in a statement.
Additional
information will be provided “when appropriate, as details become
available," it added.
Al-Shabaab, translated as the "The Youth," is an
al-Qaeda-linked extremist group designated as a foreign terrorist organization
by the US. Its basic goal is to create a fundamentalist Islamic state – a
caliphate – in Somalia.
Last week, the group claimed responsibility for a Christmas Day attack
on the main African Union (AU) base in Mogadishu, which killed at least three
soldiers and two civilian contractors.
Al-Shabaab's terrorist activities most notably include coordinated
suicide bombings in Uganda's capital in 2010 and a deadly raid on a Nairobi
mall in 2013.
The US National Counterterrorism Center says that “Al-Shabaab
is responsible for the assassination of Somali peace activists, international
aid workers, numerous civil society figures, and journalists.”
According to the Council of Foreign Relations, Washington suspects that
Al-Shabaab successfully recruited Somali-Americans to possibly orchestrate
strikes on American soil.
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