U.S. Attack Hits Militant Training Camp in Somalia

More than 150 al-Shabaab fighters in final stages of preparing an attack were killed, Pentagon says.

U.S. warplanes conducted airstrikes on what Pentagon officials said was an al-Shabaab training camp in central Somalia, killing more than 150 suspected fighters as the Islamist militant group grows increasingly aggressive across the East African nation.

The strikes were among the largest in a string of U.S. attacks that have claimed some of the militant group’s top leaders in recent years, defense officials said.

Saturday’s airstrikes by American manned and unmanned aircraft came after intelligence indicated that fighters at the Raso training camp were in the final preparations for an attack, potentially against a peacekeeping force known as the African Union Mission in Somalia, or Amisom.

The U.S. contributes about 50 advisers and trainers to Amisom, which the militant group has attacked before.

“The fighters who were scheduled to depart the camp posed an imminent threat to U.S. and African Union Mission in Somalia (Amisom) forces in Somalia,” Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said on Monday.

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