{"id":109871,"date":"2017-08-04T05:36:26","date_gmt":"2017-08-04T09:36:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=109871"},"modified":"2017-08-04T05:36:26","modified_gmt":"2017-08-04T09:36:26","slug":"us-confirms-airstrike-killed-al-shabab-commander-in-somalia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2017\/08\/04\/us-confirms-airstrike-killed-al-shabab-commander-in-somalia\/","title":{"rendered":"US confirms airstrike killed al Shabab commander in Somalia"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Logo<\/a>
Logo of Al-Shabaab (Photo by By http:\/\/www.shabelle.net, Fair use)<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MOGADISHU, Somalia — The U.S. military on Friday confirmed it killed a high-level commander of the al-Shabab extremist group with an airstrike in Somalia over the weekend, targeting a man blamed for planning deadly attacks in the capital of the Horn of Africa nation.<\/p>\n

President Donald Trump earlier this year approved expanded military operations against the al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab, including more aggressive airstrikes and considering parts of southern Somalia areas of active hostilities. Al-Shabab is the deadliest Islamic extremist group in Africa.<\/p>\n

A U.S. Africa Command statement said the strike on July 30 killed Ali Mohamed Hussein, also known as Ali Jabal. The statement said he was \u201cwas responsible for leading al-Shabab forces operating in the Mogadishu and Banadiir regions in planning and executing attacks against the capital of Mogadishu.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ali also had served as the extremist group’s shadow governor for Mogadishu and had been one of al-Shabab’s most outspoken officials.<\/p>\n

The statement said the airstrike occurred near Tortoroow, an al-Shabab stronghold in Lower Shabelle region in southern Somalia \u201cas a direct response to al-Shabab actions, including recent attacks on Somali forces.\u201d It said no civilians were killed in the strike.<\/p>\n

The U.S. Africa Command has told The Associated Press it was a drone strike.<\/p>\n

Al-Shabab often carries out deadly attacks on high-profile targets in Mogadishu, including Somali military and African Union checkpoints and facilities, hotels and the area around the presidential palace.<\/p>\n

The killing of Ali \u201cdisrupts al-Shabab’s ability to plan and conduct attacks in Mogadishu and co-ordinate efforts between Al-Shabab regional commanders,\u201d the U.S. statement said.<\/p>\n

The U.S. has carried out a handful of airstrikes since Trump’s expansion of military efforts. The U.S. military in early July said it carried out an airstrike against al-Shabab in Somalia and was assessing the results, with few details. The airstrike followed one in June that the U.S. said killed eight extremists at a rebel command and logistics camp in the south.<\/p>\n

The Somalia-based al-Shabab recently mocked Trump in a video that called him a \u201cbrainless billionaire.\u201d The extremist group also has vowed to step up attacks in Somalia after the president elected in February declared a new offensive against al-Shabab.<\/p>\n

The extremist group also has carried out deadly attacks in neighbouring countries, notably Kenya, calling it retribution for sending troops to Somalia to fight it.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MOGADISHU, Somalia — The U.S. military on Friday confirmed it killed a high-level commander of the al-Shabab extremist group with …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":109877,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,17],"tags":[286,11386,1058],"class_list":["post-109871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-w","tag-al-qaida","tag-al-shabab","tag-trump","mauthors-abdi-guled","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109871"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109871\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/109877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}