WASHINGTON: The US military conducted an air strike against Al-Qaeda affiliated Al-Shabab jihadists on Tuesday, the first since President Joe Biden took office, the Pentagon said.
The US military command for Africa (AFRICOM), in coordination with the Somali government, “conducted one airstrike in the vicinity of Galkayo, Somalia today against Al-Shabab,” Pentagon spokeswoman Cindi King told AFP.
The strike, 700 kilometers (430 miles) northeast of Mogadishu, targeted Shabab Islamists, King said.
“A battle-damage assessment is still pending due to the ongoing engagement between Al-Shabab and Somali forces, however the command’s initial assessment is that no civilians were injured or killed as a result of this strike,” she added.
The strike is the first conducted by the US military in Somalia since January 19, when AFRICOM announced it had killed three Shabab jihadists in two strikes in Jamaame and Deb Scinnele.
Biden was inaugurated the next day. As soon as he arrived at the White House, he limited the use of drones against jihadist groups outside US theaters of war.
That reversed the policy of his predecessor Donald Trump, who had given the US military carte blanche in countries such as Somalia and Libya.
In March, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said that any planned strikes against jihadist groups outside Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq were now submitted to the White House before being carried out.
Drone strikes multiplied during Trump’s term, going from 11 in Somalia in 2015, to 64 in 2019 and 54 in 2020, according to the non-governmental group Airwars, which monitors civilian deaths in bombings around the world.
Just before he left office, Trump ordered the withdrawal of some 700 special forces soldiers who were deployed in Somalia to train and advise the Somali army.
US launches air strike targeting Al-Shabab in Somalia
https://arab.news/6vt7m
US launches air strike targeting Al-Shabab in Somalia
- US military command for Africa "conducted one airstrike in the vicinity of Galkayo, Somalia today against al-Shabaab”
- The strike, 700 kilometers northeast of Mogadishu, targeted Shabaab Islamists, a Pentagon spokeswoman told AFP
Two family members of Mexico’s education secretary killed in shooting
MEXICO CITY: Authorities in the western Mexican state of Colima said they killed three people suspected in the shooting deaths of two family members of Mexico’s secretary of education on Saturday.
Colima, located on Mexico’s Pacific coast, is one of the country’s most violent states. It recorded the highest homicide rate in Mexico in 2023 and 2024, according to the US State Department.
The local prosecutor’s office said officers killed three suspects in the 4:30 am (1030 GMT) shooting of two women, whom Mexico’s Secretary of Public Education Mario Delgado later identified as his aunt and cousin.
They did not identify a motive in the shooting or say whether they were searching for other suspects.
“Deep shock, outrage, and sorrow over the events that occurred this morning in Colima, where my aunt Eugenia Delgado and my cousin Sheila were brutally murdered in their home,” Delgado wrote on X on Saturday.
Officials tracked the suspects’ vehicle to a Colima home on Saturday afternoon and killed three people in a gunfight, according to the prosecutor’s office.
Investigators found weapons and clothing in the suspects’ home linked to the double shooting.
Delgado was appointed education secretary by President Claudia Sheinbaum in 2024. He previously served as national president of the ruling Morena party.
