By Oyintari Ben
According to a statement from US Africa Command, five al-Shabaab fighters were killed in a US strike in Somalia on Wednesday.
AFRICOM described the attack as a “collective self-defence action” carried out at the government of Somalia’s request.
The attack took place about 300 kilometres north of Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia.
Due to the operation’s remote location, neither civilians nor military personnel were hurt or killed, according to AFRICOM.
The US has now hit al-Shabaab militants in Somalia twice in the past week, with the most recent attack being the second. The US struck al-Shabaab members on Friday, killing 12 of them northeast of Mogadishu.
AFRICOM reports that the US has carried out five attacks against al-Shabaab since the start of the year, demonstrating the growing cooperation between the US, the Somali government, and Somali troops in the fight against the terrorist organisation.
Al-Shabaab is regarded by AFRICOM as the biggest and deadliest Al Qaeda network in the world, with a proven willingness to carry out attacks against Somalia, the US, and other targets.
The US also carried out a counterterrorism operation in Somalia before the end of January, which resulted in the death of Bilal al-Sudani, an ISIS senior in charge of promoting ISIS doctrine across Africa.
Since President Joe Biden authorised a Pentagon request to redeploy US soldiers to the region last year to combat al-Shabaab, the US has continued to support the Somali government. The decision to send less than 500 troops marked a reversal of the previous administration’s plan to withdraw all US forces from Afghanistan by 2020.
