Pentagon claims drone strike in Somalia killed 150 al-Shabaab militants
9 March 2016 6:50 AM IST
A US drone strike on a Al-Shabaab training camp in Somalia over the weekend killed more than 150 fighters who were planning a “large-scale” attack, the Pentagon said on Tuesday.
Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis said the strike occurred sometime Saturday (US time) on a camp called Raso, about 195 kilometres north of Mogadishu.
“The fighters were there training and were training for a large-scale attack. We know they were going to be departing the camp and they posed an imminent threat to US and (African Union) forces. Initial assessments are that more than 150 terrorist fighters were eliminated” Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis said.
Davis said the group had neared the completion of specialist training to conduct “offensive operations,” but he did not give any details about the assault the fighters were allegedly planning.
“Their removal will degrade al-Al-Shabaab’s ability to meet the group’s objectives in Somalia, which includes recruiting new members, establishing bases and planning attacks on US and AMISON (African Union Mission to Somalia) forces there,” he said. The training camp had been under surveillance for some time ahead of the drone strike.
“There was a sense that the operational phase was about to happen,” Davis said. Al-Qaeda aligned Al-Shabaab jihadists have claimed responsiblity for a string of recent attacks.
‘Airstrikes deter al-Shabaab’s ability to attack’
Pentagon has said that the US air strike on a terrorist training camp in Somalia that killed 150 terrorists has degraded the Shabab militant group’s ability to attack American and UN-mandated forces.
“On Saturday, March 5, the US military, in self-defence and in defence of our African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) partners, conducted an airstrike in Somalia against Raso Camp, a training facility of al-Shabaab, which is a terrorist group affiliated with al-Qaeda,” the Pentagon Press Secretary, Peter Cook, said.
“The strike was conducted using manned and unmanned aircraft. The fighters who were scheduled to depart the camp posed an imminent threat to US and African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) forces in Somalia,” he said.
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 US and AMISOM forces, Cook said.
According to the White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest, the fighters who were scheduled to depart the camp posed an imminent threat to US and African Union Mission forces in Somalia.
“The removal of those terrorist fighters degrades al Shabaab’s ability to meet the group’s objectives in Somalia, including recruiting new members, establishing bases, and planning attacks on US and AMISOM forces,” he said.
“This is a good example of how the United States military can use our resources and capabilities in partnership with forces on the ground - in this case, African Union forces - to counter extremism and protect the United States and our interests.
And so this is exactly the kind of counterterrorism strategy that the President has laid out,” he said.
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