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| Al-Shabab in Somalia: US air strike 'kills 60 militants' | Al-Shabab in Somalia: US air strike 'kills 60 militants' |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| The US military says it believes some 60 al-Shabab militants were killed by one of its air strikes in central Somalia on Friday. | The US military says it believes some 60 al-Shabab militants were killed by one of its air strikes in central Somalia on Friday. |
| The "precision" strike around Harardere did not injure or kill civilians, it added in a statement. | |
| The US said the attack was carried out as part of a joint effort with Somali forces to hit the al-Shabab group. | The US said the attack was carried out as part of a joint effort with Somali forces to hit the al-Shabab group. |
| This was the deadliest air strike since November 2017 when 100 militants were killed, the statement added. | |
| Al-Shabab, which is linked to al-Qaeda, has not yet commented. | |
| "Alongside our Somali and international partners, we are committed to preventing al-Shabab from taking advantage of safe havens from which they can build capacity and attack the people of Somalia," the US Africa Command said. | |
| The US military has conducted more than two dozen air strikes, including drone strikes, in Somalia this year, the Associated Press news agency reports. | |
| US President Donald Trump expanded military operations against al-Shabab in March 2017. | |
| Traditionally, US presidents have been wary of intervening in Somalia since 18 special forces soldiers died fighting militias in the capital Mogadishu in 1993, a battle dramatised in the film Black Hawk Down. | |
| Al-Shabab was forced out of Mogadishu in August 2011 following an offensive spearheaded by African Union (AU) troops. | |
| But it still has a strong presence in regions around the capital. | |
| The port town of Harardere was the hub for piracy in the region when the hijacking of ships off the Somali coast was at its peak in 2009-2011. |