MOGADISHU: Two joint Somali-US airstrikes killed 12 Al-Shabab militants in central Somalia and destroyed a ship carrying weapons for the Al-Qaeda-linked group, the Somali government said on Thursday, following recent advances by the Islamists.
The airstrikes came hours after the Islamists attacked the strategic town of Adan Yabal, which lies about 245 km (150 miles) north of the capital, Mogadishu, and has been used as an operating base for raids on Al-Shabab.
Al Shabab has been waging an insurgency since 2007, seeking to seize power and rule based on its own strict interpretation of Islamic law, and it has been gaining ground since last month.
Several senior Al-Shabab fighters were among those killed in an airstrike carried out by Somali forces and the US Africa Command (AFRICOM) in the Adan Yabal district late on Wednesday, Somalia’s government said.
“The targeted strike hit a site used by the militants as a gathering and hideout,” the Ministry of Information said in a statement on the social media platform X, adding that no civilians had been killed in the strike.
A further airstrike was conducted by the government and AFRICOM on an unidentified and unflagged ship and smaller support vessels that were transporting weapons for Al-Shabab within Somali waters, the ministry said.
The vessels were destroyed their occupants were killed, it added.
In a separate incident on Thursday near the southwestern city of Baidoa, the national army killed at least 35 Al-Shabab fighters as they tried to attack a military base there, the ministry said.
Al Shabab briefly captured villages within 50 km (30 miles) of Mogadishu last month, raising fears among residents of the capital that the city could be targeted.
Somali forces have recaptured the villages briefly seized last month, but Al-Shabab has continued to advance in the countryside, leading the government to deploy police and prison guards to support the military, soldiers have told Reuters.
The outcome of the heavy fighting that broke out on Wednesday in Adan Yabal was not immediately clear, with government forces and Al-Shabab giving conflicting accounts of who was in control of the town.
Al Shabab said its forces had overrun 10 military installations during the fighting.
US-Somali airstrikes kill Al-Shabab militants, hit weapons ship, government says
https://arab.news/yn5vf
US-Somali airstrikes kill Al-Shabab militants, hit weapons ship, government says
- Somali government, US Africa Command carry out airstrikes
- Somali troops kill Al-Shabab fighters attempting to attack base
Second doctor in Matthew Perry overdose case sentenced to home confinement
- Dr. Mark Chavez, 55, a onetime San Diego-based physician, pleaded guilty in federal court in October
- Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett also sentenced Chavez to 300 hours of community service
LOS ANGELES: A second California doctor was sentenced on Tuesday to eight months of home confinement for illegally supplying “Friends” star Matthew Perry with ketamine, the powerful sedative that caused the actor’s fatal drug overdose in a hot tub in 2023.
Dr. Mark Chavez, 55, a onetime San Diego-based physician, pleaded guilty in federal court in October to a single felony count of conspiracy to distribute the prescription anesthetic and surrendered his medical license in November.
Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett also sentenced Chavez to 300 hours of community service. As part of his plea agreement, Chavez admitted to selling ketamine to another physician Dr. Salvador Plasencia, 44, who in turn supplied the drug to Perry, though not the dose that ultimately killed the performer. Plasencia, who pleaded guilty to four counts of unlawful drug distribution, was sentenced earlier this month to 2 1/2 years behind bars.
He and Chavez were the first two of five people convicted in connection with Perry’s ketamine-induced death to be sent off to prison.
The three others scheduled to be sentenced in the coming weeks — Jasveen Sangha, 42, a drug dealer known as the “Ketamine Queen;” a go-between dealer Erik Fleming, 56; and Perry’s former personal assistant, Iwamasa, 60.
Sangha admitted to supplying the ketamine dose that killed Perry, and Iwamasa acknowledged injecting Perry with it. It was Iwamasa who later found Perry, aged 54, face down and lifeless, in the jacuzzi of his Los Angeles home on October 28, 2023.
An autopsy report concluded the actor died from the acute effects of ketamine,” which combined with other factors in causing him to lose consciousness and drown.
Perry had publicly acknowledged decades of substance abuse, including the years he starred as Chandler Bing on the hit 1990s NBC television series “Friends.”
According to federal law enforcement officials, Perry had been receiving ketamine infusions for treatment of depression and anxiety at a clinic where he became addicted to the drug.
When doctors there refused to increase his dosage, he turned to unscrupulous providers elsewhere willing to exploit Perry’s drug dependency as a way to make quick money, authorities said. Ketamine is a short-acting anesthetic with hallucinogenic properties that is sometimes prescribed to treat depression and other psychiatric disorders. It also has seen widespread abuse as an illicit party drug.
