A fully armed MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial vehicle taxis down the runway at an air base in Afghanistan on its way to another wartime mission. (U.S. Air Force photo/Staff Sgt. Brian Ferguson).
On August 17, the United States Africa Command (AFRICOM) announced that it had carried out a strike against terrorists of al-Qaeda-affiliated Harakat al-Shabaab al-Mujahideen near the central Somali town of Teedaan.
In a statement, the command said that the strike was carried out in coordination with the Federal Government of Somalia.
“The command’s initial assessment is that the strikes killed 13 al-Shabaab terrorists and that no civilians were injured or killed. US forces are authorized to conduct strikes in defense of designated partner forces,” the statement reads.
While this was not the first US strike to target al-Shabaab terrorists in Somalia this year, it was without a doubt one of the deadliest.
Three US strikes targeted al-Shabaab near the town of Beledweyne, which is located some 330 kilometers to the north of the Somali capital Mogadishu, exactly a week ago. Back then, four terrorists were reportedly killed.
In May, President Joe Biden decided to redeploy US troops to Somalia in support of the federal government and to counter al-Shabaab threat. The move reversed a decision by former President Donald Trump to withdraw all troops from the country.
Al-Shabaab has been waging an insurgency against Somalia’s federal government for more than 15 years now. Despite being challenged by ISIS in the last few years, al-Shabaab remains the most influential terrorist group in the war-torn country.
But did they manage to Kill the head of ISIS for a 2nd time and Bin Laden for a third time, that’s the real question here!