After conducting five airstrikes over the weekend, U.S. Africa Command assesses it has killed at least 181 al Shabab militants in Somalia so far this year.
On Saturday, four airstrikes targeted illegal checkpoints operated by al Shabab fighters to extort “taxes” from innocent Somalis, according to a statement from AFRICOM.
Then on Sunday, U.S. forces spotted a large group of militants moving from one location to another and launched a single, deadly airstrike, killing an estimated 34 al Shabab fighters.
“In the case of this strike, we interrupted an al Shabab attempt to mass their forces,” said Marine Corps Maj. Gen. Gregg Olson, director of operations for U.S. Africa Command. “Precision strikes eliminated a potential threat to our partners and to the people of Somalia well before the terrorists ever got themselves organized.”
The United States has approximately 500 troops in Somalia supporting the government and U.N.-authorized African Union troops as they battle the terrorists.
The U.S. military said it killed 323 al Shabab fighters over the course of the entire year in 2018.
