{"id":18748,"date":"2018-10-16T21:25:26","date_gmt":"2018-10-16T21:25:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=18748"},"modified":"2018-10-16T21:25:26","modified_gmt":"2018-10-16T21:25:26","slug":"somalia-us-air-strike-kills-60-al-shabab-fighters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=18748","title":{"rendered":"Somalia: US air strike &#8216;kills 60 al-Shabab fighters&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"body-200771816342556199\" readability=\"95.1255115962\">\n<p class=\"speakable\">A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/topics\/country\/united-states.html\">US<\/a> military air strike against the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/topics\/organisations\/al-shabab.html\">al-Shabab<\/a> group in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/topics\/country\/somalia.html\">Somalia<\/a> has killed about 60 fighters, one of its deadliest in nearly a year, US military officials said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"speakable\">The air strike, which was launched on Friday, occurred near the al-Shabab-controlled community of Harardere in Mudug province in the central part of the country, the US Africa Command announced on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"speakable\">According to its assessment no civilians were killed or wounded, the statement said.<\/p>\n<p>It was the largest US air strike since a November 2017 attack, which killed about 100 al-Shabab fighters.<\/p>\n<p>The US military has carried out more than two dozen air strikes, including drone strikes, this year against the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/topics\/organisations\/al-qaeda.html\">al-Qaeda<\/a>-linked al-Shabab.<\/p>\n<p>Somalia on Sunday marked the first anniversary of al-Shabab&#8217;s deadliest attack, a truck bombing in Mogadishu that killed well over 500 people.<\/p>\n<p>A US Africa Command spokesperson said the air strike had no link to the anniversary.<\/p>\n<p>The United States has increased its military presence in Somalia since early 2017 to about 500 personnel after President <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2016\/11\/profile-president-donald-trump-161109050153947.html\">Donald Trump<\/a> approved expanded military operations.<\/p>\n<p>Al-Shabab continues to hold parts of the country&#8217;s south and central regions after being chased out of Mogadishu several years ago.<\/p>\n<p>The group, estimated at several thousands of fighters, still carries out deadly attacks against high-profile targets such as hotels and checkpoints in the capital and other cities.<\/p>\n<p>It also remains a threat in parts of neighboring <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/topics\/country\/kenya.html\">Kenya<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A US military air strike against the al-Shabab group in Somalia has killed about 60 fighters, one of its deadliest in nearly a year, US military officials said. The air strike, which was launched on Friday, occurred near the al-Shabab-controlled community of Harardere in Mudug province in the central part of the country, the US&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":18749,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18748","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\/18748","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=18748"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18748\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}