A U.S. military airstrike has targeted al-Shabab terrorists who were attacking Somali National Army forces, killing two, according to U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM).
The strike Sunday was near Buulobarde, Somalia, 218 km northwest of Mogadishu.
AFRICOM says its initial assessment is that two terrorists who were actively attacking Somali forces were killed, and that no civilians were injured or killed.
“Al-Shabab is the largest and most kinetically active al-Qaida network in the world and has proved both its will and capability to attack U.S. forces and threaten U.S. security interests,” the command said in a statement Tuesday, adding that it would continue “to take action to prevent this malicious terrorist group from planning and conducting attacks on civilians.”
The U.S. strike comes as al-Shabab launched two major attacks in Somalia this month.
A siege at the Tawakal Hotel on Sunday in the southern coastal city of Kismayo killed at least 11 people, and in early October, a triple bombing in the town of Beledweyne killed at least 20 people.
The Somali National Army and allied militia in central Somalia have launched an offensive against the terror group.
Abdisalam Guled, the director of the Mogadishu-based security company Eagle Ranges Services, told VOA that al-Shabab may have been trying to target government forces that had been meeting at the hotel to plan the offensive against the terror group.
VOA’s Somali Service contributed to this report.
