Ground troops and airstrikes killed more than 20 suspected Al-Shabaab fighters in southern Somalia, state news reported, citing a local official.
Awdhegle town official Mohamed Aways said on radio that the brunt of the overnight attack — involving three warplanes and “infantry” — lasted about 30 minutes, according to the state-run Somali National News Agency.
Awdhegle is located about 40 miles (65 kilometers) west of Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu.
Al-Shabaab, an al Qaeda-linked militant organization, calls Somalia home. Its stated aim is to turn the East African nation into a fundamentalist Islamic state, according to the Council on Foreign Relations.
But the Islamist extremist group hasn’t confined its terror or ambitions to Somalia, as evidenced by other horrific attacks like last year’s massacre at Kenya’s Garissa University College and a 2013 siege of Nairobi’s upscale Westgate Mall.
Source: U.S. kills 2 Al-Shabaab leaders in weekend attack
These tactics have made Al-Shabaab a target, with the United States, African Union and others often helping Somalia’s government in going after the terrorist group.
The U.S. military did so on Saturday, claiming to have used manned and unmanned U.S. aircraft to kill as many as 150 Al-Shabaab fighters 120 miles north of Mogadishu at a training site called “Raso Camp,” according to Pentagon spokesman Capt. Jeff Davis.
The dead include a pair of high-level Al-Shabaab leaders, a senior Somali intelligence source told CNN. One was Yusuf Ali Ugas, a regional commander, recruiter and influential preacher. The other was Mohamed Mire, Al-Shabaab’s governor for Somalia’s Hiran region and a key member of the group’s finance wing.
Peter Cook, another Pentagon spokesman, said Saturday’s attack was carried out to safeguard “our African Union Mission” in Somalia and that “the fighters who were scheduled to depart the camp posed an imminent threat” to the mission.
He added, “The removal of these fighters degrades Al-Shabaab’s ability to meet the group’s objectives in Somalia, including recruiting new members, establishing bases, and planning attacks” on U.S. and African Union forces.
However, Al-Shabaab denied the Pentagon report in in a short statement posted on the group’s Twitter account.
“Harakat Al Shabaab Al Mujahideen denies the claims of killing 150 fighters in recent airstrike, as was reported by the Pentagon,” the group said.