U.S. airstrikes in Somalia killed four al-Shabaab fighters including a former commander, military officials told VOA Somalia.
The air strikes were conducted near Kanjaron village on Monday. An airstrike outside the village killed the former commander and the three other fighters.
Somali military sources identified the former commander as Bashir Dhere, a former al-Shabaab deputy militia commander in the Lower Jubba region.
Somali troops and their U.S. advisers were attacked on Monday by extremists, according to a statement by U.S. AFRICOM. Somali fighters returned fire on the extremists, killing several of them, but they continued to attack.
According to the statement, the commander and the three other fighters killed in the airstrike were killed in “self defense.”
“Based on the threatening maneuver by Al-Shabaab fighters and their previous hostile engagement with the Somali forces, the U.S. conducted a self-defense strike to neutralize the threat,” Cpt. Jennifer Dyrcz with U.S. Africa Command told Fox News.
[revad2]
