The U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) has acknowledged the killing of Somali civilians in its air campaign against the armed group al Shabaab.
In its second quarterly report, AFRICOM said one civilian was killed and three others were wounded by its operations this year.
According to the command spokesman Air Force Col. Chris Karns, the civilians killed and wounded “weren’t visible” when the military conducted the strike, which targeted and wounded one al-Shabab terrorist on February in the vicinity of Jilib, Somalia
“We believe our operations caused the inadvertent death of one person and injury to three others who we did not intend to target,” AFRICOM Commander Army Gen. Stephen Townsend said in a statement Tuesday.
AFRICOM told VOA that four incidents of potential civilian casualties are still under review.
The U.S. military which provides training and air support to Somali forces has conducted 100 airstrikes against terror groups in Somalia and Libya between February 2019 and July 21, 2020, according to military press releases.
