Friday July 23, 2021
FILE - U.S. Predator unmanned drone armed with a missile stands on the tarmac of Kandahar military airport in Afghanistan. VOA
Mogadishu (HOL) - The Somali government said that Al-Shabaab " suffered another great loss" after an airstrike struck militants between Qaycad town and Xarardheere district in Galmudug district.
In a press release from the Ministry of Information, the government said that the precision strike successfully killed several fighters and weapons without giving a specific number of deaths. It added that they assessed zero civilian casualties.
The Pentagon later confirmed that the U.S military struck Al-Shabaab fighters near Galmudug. The Americans emphasized that no U.S troops were accompanying Somali soldiers during the operation.
Earlier this week, the U.S. conducted its first airstrike since the Biden administration took over. The Pentagon confirmed that its force was behind the single strike near Galkayo, 700 kilometres (430 miles) northeast of Mogadishu.
The U.S. carried out 63 airstrikes against al-Shabab in 2019 and 53 airstrikes in 2020.
Galmudug Security Minister, Ahmed Moalim Fiqi, told the media on Friday that his soldiers inflicted heavy losses on Al-Shabaab militants in recent weeks, estimating that at least 100 Al-Shabaab fighters have been killed in the Mudug region.
He added that the Darwish forces of Galmudug and the Somali government collaboratively destroyed the main Al-Shabaab bases in the area.
