AFRICOM, which oversees US military operations on the African continent claimed credit for a recent drone strike in Somalia, this past Thursday.
According to AFRICOM, the US carried out a strike targeting an Al Shabaab controlled checkpoint in the town of Hantiwadaag in the Lower Shabelle province of Somalia.
The statement went further and claimed one militant from the armed group Al Shabaab was killed in the drone strike, with no civilian casualties. However, these claims could not be independently verified.
The vast majority of drone strikes carried out in Somalia take place in Al Shabaab controlled territory, therefore making it impossible for local journalists and aid agencies to access these areas and asses the aftermath of the drone strikes, let alone determine weather the victims are in fact combatants or civilians.
In the past, prominent rights groups such as Amnesty International have directly implicated US AFRICOM for committing war crimes in Somalia as a result of there murderous and often secretive drone war being waged in the country.
Halgan Media.
