According to the portal Somali Guardian, after the drone strike, intense shooting began in the area.
A US drone struck an object of the Al-Shabab terrorist group in the central part of the country in Somalia on Sunday. This was reported by the Somali news portal Somali Guardian, citing local authorities.
“The airstrike was carried out on the Al-Shabab base between the cities of Kayad and Harer Dere,” the regional administration of the Mudug district said in a statement. She did not provide any other information, including an assessment of the damage caused to the militants. Meanwhile, according to the portal, after the drone strike, intense shooting began in the area. The African Command of the US Armed Forces (AFRICOM) has not yet published an official message about this operation.
The current strike was the third carried out by the United States since July 20 in Somalia against Al-Shabab targets. The drone attacks, based in Djibouti, are designed to help the operations of Somali troops who are seeking to regain control over some areas in the central and southern part of the country ahead of the September elections to the lower house of parliament.
The Al-Shabab terrorist group was established in Somalia in 2004. Since 2008, its militants have periodically committed terrorist acts. By 2010, the group controlled vast territories. Still, in the summer of 2011, it was forced to leave the capital of Somalia, Mogadishu, and switch to guerrilla tactics against the country’s government and its allies. In February 2012, one of the leaders of Al-Shabab announced that the militants had joined the terrorist organization Al-Qaeda. The total number of Al-Shabab is estimated at 7 thousand militants.
