U.S. airstrike killed six Somali civilians in janale district, Southwest Somalia

U.S. airstrike aimed at Somali Islamist militants killed six civilians on Wednesday afternoon raising further questions about the extent of civilian casualties from U.S. military operations.

One of the victim’s relative Mahad Dhore, a lawmaker from South West regional state confirmed to Reuters news to the names and clans of the six civilians killed.

“A drone killed six people in a minibus yesterday, including a 13-year-old boy named Abdifatah Farhan Mohamud,” he said. “Six of them were civilians and they were buried near the area where they were bombed by the drone because they could not be carried as they were burnt into pieces.”

U.S. Africa Command said in a statement that Tuesday’s strike near Janaale town had killed “five terrorists” and added “while we currently assess that this airstrike injured no civilians, we are aware of social media reports alleging civilian casualties … U.S. Africa Command said it will review any information it has about the incident.”

On the other hand, Al-Shabab accused US military airstrike of killing civilians and attributed US military packed with Somali government troop’s statement released fake news lacking evidence including the person killed name, title and his location of duty.

The International human rights group and Amnesty International released a report a year ago alleging the U.S. strikes killing 14 civilians in just five airstrikes between 2017 and 2018. Africa Command initially denied the allegation but later concluded that two civilians died in 2018 strike.

Somali federal government who is responsible for the people yet released any information about the civilians killed in the US airstrike.

Goobjoog news