The United States military on Friday said it had killed 26 fighters with the al-Shabab extremist group with an airstrike in central Somalia, after a pair of strikes earlier this week killed 55.
The U.S. has carried out 24 such strikes this year, more than half the number in all of 2018. Several have had death tolls in the double digits, including one in mid-January that killed 52 fighters and one in late January that killed 24.
A U.S. Africa Command statement said the attack occurred Thursday in the Hiran region, where the earlier ones took place. When asked why recent strikes have been deadlier, a spokeswoman said Somali and “partner forces continue to make incursions into territory formerly controlled by al-Shabab,” giving them chances to collect more intelligence and develop targets.
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