Al-Shabab ‘seizes missile armed drone

A military drone which reportedly crashed in southern Somalia on Monday in a remote area is being held by Al-Shabab fighters, residents said.

“We saw what looked like a small aircraft crashing in the mountains,” said Abudlahi Muhidin, a resident in a nearby village.

He added “Al-Shabab fighters carried away the wreckage on a vehicle.”

Al- Shabab said they had seized the wreckage of an unmanned aircraft, which landed in a hilly region south of Bardhere in the far southern Gedo district, close to the border of Kenya and Ethiopia.

“Mujahedeen fighters secured control of the wreckage of the plane and the equipment it carried,” a pro-Al-Shabab website claimed.

Last week the Al-Shabab claimed responsibility for a bomb attack which ripped a hole in a passenger plane shortly after takeoff from the capital Mogadishu earlier this month.

Previously drone strikes have targeted senior members of the group, which is fighting to topple Somalia’s internationally recognised government.