US airstrike kills 4 Al-Shabab militants in Basra, Lower Shabelle, Somalia

The U.S. military says it has killed four members of the al-Shabab extremist group with a “self-defence airstrike targeting al-Shabaab militants in the vicinity of Basra village in the Lower Shabelle Somalia on December 08, 2018.

The U.S. Africa Command statement says the airstrike occurred on Saturday near Basra, a community outside the capital, Mogadishu. The statement says no civilians were involved.

The U.S. military has carried out 39 airstrikes this year against the al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab, Africa’s most active Islamic extremist group, which controls parts of rural southern and central Somalia and continues to stage deadly attacks in Mogadishu and other cities.

The U.S. airstrikes have picked up dramatically since President Donald Trump took office and approved expanded military operations in the Horn of Africa nation. Airstrikes also target a small presence of fighters linked to the Islamic State group.

SOURCES: AP