Somalia sought US airstrike which killed militants

File: Hundreds of newly trained al-Shabab fighters perform military exercises in the Lafofe area some 18 km south of Mogadishu, in Somalia. (AP)

MOGADISHU: Somalia’s government said on Wednesday it had requested the US airstrike which killed more than 100 suspected militants on the previous day to help pave the way for an upcoming ground offensive against the militant group Al-Shabab.
The US military’s Africa Command said on Tuesday it had killed more than 100 of the Al-Qaeda-linked insurgents in an airstrike on a camp 125 miles (200 km) northwest of the capital Mogadishu.
“Those militants were preparing explosives and attacks. Operations against Al-Shabab have been stepped up,” Abdirahman Omar Oman, the Somali minister, told Reuters.
“We have asked the US to help us from the air to make our readied ground offensive more successful.”
The US has ramped up operations in Somalia this year after President Donald Trump loosened the rules of engagement in March.
Africom reported eight US airstrikes from May to August this year, compared to 13 for the whole of 2016. Including Tuesday’s airstrike, it has reported five strikes in Somalia this month alone.
The Pentagon said the US military would continue to target militants in strikes in coordination with the Somali government.
A Navy Seal was killed in a raid in May and US forces were present at a controversial raid on the town of Bariire in August, in which 10 people were killed.
Al-Shabab has lost control of most of Somalia’s cities and towns since African Union peacekeepers supporting Somali troops pushed the insurgency out of the capital Mogadishu in 2011. But it retains a strong presence in parts of the south and center.
Somali president Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, a dual US-Somali citizen, has taken a harder line than his predecessors against the insurgency since he was sworn in earlier this year.
But his plans have been repeatedly thwarted by the poor state of the Somali military and political infighting.