The strike was carried out approximately 320 miles northeast of Mogadishu.<\/p>\n
\u201cGiven the remote location of the operation, the command assesses that no civilians were injured or killed,\u201d AFRICOM said.<\/p>\n
Earlier this month, the US carried out two strikes against al-Shabaab militants in Somalia, killing 17 fighters in all, AFRICOM said.<\/p>\n
Tuesday\u2019s strike is the sixth time this year that US forces have conducted strikes against al-Shabaab in coordination with the Somali government, an increased pace of activity against a militant organization that AFRICOM considers the largest and most deadly al Qaeda network in the world. The numerous operations against al-Shabaab are a sign of the growing cooperation between the US and Somali governments against what the two countries view as a growing regional threat.<\/p>\n
In late-January, the US also carried out a counterterrorism operation in Somalia that killed Bilal al-Sudani, an ISIS leader responsible for spreading ISIS ideology in Africa.<\/p>\n
According to AFRICOM, Somalia views the military actions as part of a broader counterterrorism strategy, in combination with economic reform, political reconciliation, and religious tolerance.<\/p>\n
The US has provided ongoing support to the Somali government since President Joe Biden last year approved a Pentagon request to redeploy US troops to the area in an attempt to counter the al-Shabaab terrorist group. The approval to send fewer than 500 troops was a reversal of former President Donald Trump\u2019s decision to withdraw all US troops from the country in 2020.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A US strike in Somalia killed seven al-Shabaab fighters on Tuesday, US Africa Command said in a statement. The strike was carried out at the request of the Somali government and was a \u201ccollective self-defense strike,\u201d AFRICOM said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12963,"featured_media":26610,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,15],"tags":[7,26,25],"class_list":{"0":"post-26613","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"category-politics","9":"tag-apie-project","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-politics"},"yoast_head":"\n