MOGADISHU, Somalia — The US navy says it has carried out an airstrike in assist of the Somali authorities’s operations in opposition to the al-Shabab extremist group that has killed among the group’s fighters.
An announcement by the U.S. Africa Command on Saturday describes the airstrike as being carried out Thursday in “collective self-defense” and on the request of the Somali Nationwide Army close to the city of Cadale within the Center Shabelle area.
Cadale is 220 kilometers (137 miles) north of the capital, Mogadishu.
The U.S. assertion says al-Shabab fighters had been attacking Somali navy forces. It says the preliminary evaluation is that no civilians had been killed.
The U.S. has carried out dozens of drone strikes in opposition to extremists in Somalia lately.
