An airstrike targeting al-Qaeda affiliate al-Shabaab in Somalia destroyed a vehicle bomb on April 11, the U.S. military’s Africa Command said.
“In coordination with the Federal Government of Somalia, U.S. forces conducted an airstrike destroying an al-Shabaab vehicle-borne improvised explosive device near Jana Cabdalle, Somalia, on the afternoon of April 11,” Africom said in a Friday, April 13 release.
The strike is the latest in an increasing number of U.S. airstrikes against al-Shabaab and Abnaa ul-Calipha, Islamic State’s affiliate in Somalia in recent months. So far in 2018, Africom has issued press releases about nine strikes targeting al-Shabaab, but a media relations official with the command recently told the Long War Journal that the U.S. has conducted three other strikes in the country this year.