US drone strike kills 150 Al Shabab fighters in Somalia
This appears to be all I could quote. I was thinking if this was a single missile likely it would have to be a cluster bomb with thousands of bomblets to kill this many fighters at one time. Something like this might kill everything living in a football sized place up to a square mile or two.
An
American air strike on a Shebab training camp in Somalia killed more
than 150 fighters planning an imminent attack on forces from the United
States and its regional allies, the Pentagon said Monday.
Washington, United States | AFP | An American air
strike on a Shebab training camp in Somalia killed more than 150
fighters planning an imminent attack on forces from the United States
and its regional allies, the Pentagon said Monday. While the US
military regularly conducts operations targeting the Al-Qaeda-linked
fighters in Somalia, Saturday's raid had a greater toll than all
previous such US strikes combined. A drone in action. The raids,
which began in 2003, had killed between 113 and 136 militants prior to
the latest operation, according to the New America foundation. Captain Jeff
Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, said the strike on Camp Raso killed
fighters as they were completing "training for a large-scale attack." Warplanes and unmanned drones were used in the strike, about 120 miles (195 kilometers) north of Mogadishu. "We know they
were going to be departing the camp and they posed an imminent threat to
US and (African Union) forces," Davis said, noting that as many as 200
fighters had been using the camp. The US military
has a small and secretive presence in Somalia, with a defense official
estimating the current number of American troops in the country on an
advise-and-assist mission at 150. After a
relative calm in the Somali capital, the Shebab have ramped up attacks
in recent months, taking advantage of the apathy of the African Union's
AMISOM mission and the weakness of Somalia's central government.
Group training for offensive missions
Davis said the group had neared the completion of specialist training
to conduct "offensive operations," declining to provide further details
on the assault the fighters were allegedly planning. "Their removal
will degrade al-Shebab's ability to meet the group's objectives in
Somalia, which includes recruiting new members, establishing bases and
planning attacks on US and AMISOM forces there," he said. The training camp had been under surveillance for some time ahead of the strike. "There was a sense that the operational phase was about to happen," Davis said. Pentagon press
secretary Peter Cook said the strike was carried out in "self defense,"
but he did not provide any detail on the threat the fighters may have
posed.
Attacks on the rise
Shebab fighters have claimed responsibility for a string of recent
attacks, including a twin bombing at a busy restaurant in the Somali
city of Baidoa last month. Also Monday,
six people were wounded when a laptop bomb exploded at an airport in
Somalia, police said, the second such attack in recent weeks targeting
passenger aircraft. The bomb
exploded at a checkpoint in the small central town of Beledweyne, some
200 miles (325 kilometers) north of the capital Mogadishu, where last
month Shebab insurgents claimed responsibility for a bomb attack which
ripped a hole in a passenger plane shortly after takeoff. No one
immediately claimed responsibility for the latest blast, which took
place at a checking area where security screening is carried out before
cargo and bags are loaded onto planes. On January 15,
Shebab fighters overran a military outpost in El-Adde, southern Somalia,
manned by up to 200 Kenyan soldiers deployed as part of the African
Union peace-enforcement mission, AMISOM. Kenya has refused to say how many of its soldiers were killed in the attack. Shebab fighters
are targeting AMISOM because in the absence of a functioning national
army. The 22,000-strong force is the only protector of the
internationally backed government the jihadists are committed to
overthrowing.
More transparency on US strikes?
President Barack Obama's administration promised to publish in the
coming weeks a casualty count from the air raids it has conducted since
he took office in 2009. The toll is due to list both combatants and civilians the US believes were killed. Critics have
condemned the lack of transparency on these raids, often taking place in
unstable countries inhospitable to US forces like Pakistan, Somalia and
Yemen, where the United States is not officially at war.
- See more at:
http://www.independent.co.ug/news/136-the-news-today/11120-us-drone-strike-kills-150-al-shabab-fighters-in-somalia#sthash.dPjAb1Nc.dpuf
Washington, United States | AFP | An American air
strike on a Shebab training camp in Somalia killed more than 150
fighters planning an imminent attack on forces from the United States
and its regional allies, the Pentagon said Monday. While the US
military regularly conducts operations targeting the Al-Qaeda-linked
fighters in Somalia, Saturday's raid had a greater toll than all
previous such US strikes combined. A drone in action. The raids,
which began in 2003, had killed between 113 and 136 militants prior to
the latest operation, according to the New America foundation. Captain Jeff
Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, said the strike on Camp Raso killed
fighters as they were completing "training for a large-scale attack." Warplanes and unmanned drones were used in the strike, about 120 miles (195 kilometers) north of Mogadishu. "We know they
were going to be departing the camp and they posed an imminent threat to
US and (African Union) forces," Davis said, noting that as many as 200
fighters had been using the camp. The US military
has a small and secretive presence in Somalia, with a defense official
estimating the current number of American troops in the country on an
advise-and-assist mission at 150. After a
relative calm in the Somali capital, the Shebab have ramped up attacks
in recent months, taking advantage of the apathy of the African Union's
AMISOM mission and the weakness of Somalia's central government.
Group training for offensive missions
Davis said the group had neared the completion of specialist training
to conduct "offensive operations," declining to provide further details
on the assault the fighters were allegedly planning. "Their removal
will degrade al-Shebab's ability to meet the group's objectives in
Somalia, which includes recruiting new members, establishing bases and
planning attacks on US and AMISOM forces there," he said. The training camp had been under surveillance for some time ahead of the strike. "There was a sense that the operational phase was about to happen," Davis said. Pentagon press
secretary Peter Cook said the strike was carried out in "self defense,"
but he did not provide any detail on the threat the fighters may have
posed.
Attacks on the rise
Shebab fighters have claimed responsibility for a string of recent
attacks, including a twin bombing at a busy restaurant in the Somali
city of Baidoa last month. Also Monday,
six people were wounded when a laptop bomb exploded at an airport in
Somalia, police said, the second such attack in recent weeks targeting
passenger aircraft. The bomb
exploded at a checkpoint in the small central town of Beledweyne, some
200 miles (325 kilometers) north of the capital Mogadishu, where last
month Shebab insurgents claimed responsibility for a bomb attack which
ripped a hole in a passenger plane shortly after takeoff. No one
immediately claimed responsibility for the latest blast, which took
place at a checking area where security screening is carried out before
cargo and bags are loaded onto planes. On January 15,
Shebab fighters overran a military outpost in El-Adde, southern Somalia,
manned by up to 200 Kenyan soldiers deployed as part of the African
Union peace-enforcement mission, AMISOM. Kenya has refused to say how many of its soldiers were killed in the attack. Shebab fighters
are targeting AMISOM because in the absence of a functioning national
army. The 22,000-strong force is the only protector of the
internationally backed government the jihadists are committed to
overthrowing.
More transparency on US strikes?
President Barack Obama's administration promised to publish in the
coming weeks a casualty count from the air raids it has conducted since
he took office in 2009. The toll is due to list both combatants and civilians the US believes were killed. Critics have
condemned the lack of transparency on these raids, often taking place in
unstable countries inhospitable to US forces like Pakistan, Somalia and
Yemen, where the United States is not officially at war.
- See more at:
http://www.independent.co.ug/news/136-the-news-today/11120-us-drone-strike-kills-150-al-shabab-fighters-in-somalia#sthash.dPjAb1Nc.dpuf
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