Top Al-Shabaab commanders ‘killed in drone strike’
At least two senior commanders from the Islamist militant group Al-Shabaab have been killed in a drone strike in south-west Somalia, BBC reports.
Missiles fired from an unidentified military aircraft struck Al-Shabaab targets in southern Somalia early on Thursday.
According to traditional elders near Bardhere town in the southern Gedo region, at least two missiles struck vehicles believed to be carrying commanders of the Somali-led Al-Qaeda affiliate.
“We heard two big explosions and the information we are getting indicates that vehicles were targeted close to a Shebab military base,” said Abdiwahab Ali, an elder at a village close to the scene of the attack.
“Village residents are telling us a missile fired from an aircraft struck a vehicle and a nearby military camp belonging to Shebab,” said Hassan Gesle, another elder.
Immediately after the attack the mobile phone network in Bardhere was cut off, making it impossible to reach Shebab commanders for comment.
There has been no official confirmation from the al-Qaeda-linked group, but a source told a BBC reporter that those killed were al-Shabab commanders.
The BBC‘s Moalimu Mohamed in the capital, Mogadishu, says the telecommunications network to Bardere has been cut off since the attack, but residents in the village nearest the town have been contactable.
They said that after the blasts, well-armed Al-Shabaab fighters rushed to the scene in Bardere, near the Juba River about 460km (285 miles) west of Mogadishu, where the dead men were found.