US airstrike degrades al-Shabaab's ability to attack
The Pentagon stated that the air-strike-operation carried out by the US on the al-Shabaab terrorist group's training camp had reduced the group's ability to attack UN approved African Union Missions to Somalia. Pentagon Press Secretary, Peter Cook, stated that the US had conducted the airstrike in self defence. He added that the trainees of the group could've posed a significant threat to UN forces.
The Harakat al-Shabaab al-Mujahideen, founded in 2006 is a jihadist-terrorist-organization in Eastern Africa. In 2012, the al-Shabaab group declared its allegiance to the al-Qaeda terrorist-organization. However, it was reported that some chiefs of the group had disputes related to the union with the al-Qaeda. It has a strength of around 9,000 members and had taken control over many rural-areas of Eastern Africa by 2015.
In an airstrike carried out by Kenya in Somalia, around 52 terrorists of the Jihadist terrorist organization, 'al-Shabaab', were killed. The Kenyan military had stated that Mahad Mohammed Karatey, the intelligence head of the terrorist organization was also killed in the operation. But, the al-Shabaab group denied any airstrike on their camp and also the news of the intelligence chief's death.
The Kenyan Defence Force stated that Mahat Karatey was killed along with ten mid-level commanders and 42 fighters of the Al-Shabaab organization. Earlier, the US had declared Karatey a terrorist and announced $5 million as a reward for finding his location.
The US carried out an airstrike on 'Raso training-camp' of the al-Shabaab group and killed over 150 recruits of the organization. Earlier it was announced that a drone-strike would suffice, but later the operation involved both manned and unmanned aircrafts. Pentagon spokesman Capt. Jeff Davis stated that there were about 200 recruits in the camp who were preparing to carry out a large-scale attack.
Many Somali government officials appreciated the joint effort of the US and Somalia to destroy al-Shabaab. The spokesman for the Somali Prime Minister said that the attack had weakened the threat from al-Shabaab.
The former commander of al-Shabaab terrorist group Mohamed Said Atom had been granted asylum in Qatar. He had abandoned al-Shabaab in June 2014 after the Somali government offered amnesty to al-Shabaab members. He had denied committing war-crimes and asked for forgiveness. The Federal government of Somalia had persuaded the UN to remove names of individuals like Atom, who had surrendered, from the 'Sanctions list'.
