{"id":15992,"date":"2018-09-22T18:22:13","date_gmt":"2018-09-22T18:22:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=15992"},"modified":"2018-09-22T18:22:13","modified_gmt":"2018-09-22T18:22:13","slug":"us-air-strike-in-somalia-kills-18-al-shabab-fighters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=15992","title":{"rendered":"US air strike in Somalia kills 18 al-Shabab fighters"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

A US<\/a>\u00a0military drone attack in southern Somalia<\/a>\u00a0killed 18 al-Shabab<\/a> fighters after American and local forces on the ground came under attack, the US Africa Command said.<\/p>\n

The air strike was carried out Friday in self-defence after fighters were “observed manoeuvring on a combined patrol,” while the US also responded with “indirect fire”, a military spokesman said on Saturday.<\/p>\n

No US or Somali forces were killed or wounded in the attack, AFRICOM spokesman Nate Herring told The Associated Press.<\/p>\n

The confrontation occurred about 50km northwest of the port city of Kismayo, the US Africa Command statement added.<\/p>\n

Two other al-Shabab fighters were killed by Somali forces with small arms fire during the engagement, it said.<\/p>\n

The US has carried out more than 20 air raids this year against al-Shabab.<\/p>\n

\n
\n\n\n\n\n
<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Al-Shabab\u00a0is fighting to overthrow the United Nations-backed government in Mogadishu\u00a0<\/span>[File: AP]<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Hunt for fighters<\/h2>\n

US military involvement in Somalia has grown since President Donald Trump<\/a> early in his term approved expanded operations against al-Shabab. Dozens of drone attacks followed.<\/p>\n

Late last year, the military also carried out its first air raid against a small presence of fighters linked to Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL<\/a>) in northern Somalia.<\/p>\n

Since the expanded operations, two US military personnel have been killed in Somalia.<\/p>\n

A soldier was killed in May 2017 during an operation about 64km west of Mogadishu.<\/p>\n

And in June, one American commando was killed and four US troops wounded in an “enemy attack” as Somali and Kenyan forces came under mortar and small-arms fire in Jubaland.<\/p>\n

The US currently has about 500 military personnel in the Horn of Africa nation.<\/p>\n

Al-Shabab<\/span> was pushed out of the Somali capital, Mogadishu, in recent years but continues to control rural areas in the south and central regions.<\/p>\n

The al-Qaeda<\/a>-linked group is fighting to overthrow the UN-backed government and has been carrying our bomb and gun attacks for more than a decade.<\/p>\n

Its fighters continue to attack the bases of a multinational African Union<\/a> force that remains largely responsible for security, as Somalia’s fragile central government tries to recover from decades of chaos.<\/p>\n

In the next few years, Somali forces are expected to take over responsibility for the country’s security as the AU force withdraws.<\/p>\n

Concerns about their readiness remain high, and the UN Security Council recently voted to delay the handover’s target date to December 2021.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A US\u00a0military drone attack in southern Somalia\u00a0killed 18 al-Shabab fighters after American and local forces on the ground came under attack, the US Africa Command said. The air strike was carried out Friday in self-defence after fighters were “observed manoeuvring on a combined patrol,” while the US also responded with “indirect fire”, a military spokesman…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":15993,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15992","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15992"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15992\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}