The US Africa Command estimated 35 al-Shabab “terrorists” were killed in an aerial bombing targeting the jihadi group in Somalia’s central Hiran region.
“In the case of this strike, we interrupted an al-Shabab attempt to mass their forces,” the US military said in a statement on Monday, a day after the attack.
“Precision strikes eliminated a potential threat to our partners and to the people of Somalia well before the terrorists ever got themselves organized,” the statement added.
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Al-Shabab aims to overthrow the Somali government and impose strict Islamic law. The militants are allied with the global al Qaeda group. While African Union troops managed to push them out of the center of the Somalian capital Mogadishu in 2011 and subsequently force them out of all urban strongholds, the group remains active in the countryside.