MOGADISHU, Somalia \u2014 A U.S. military drone strike has killed three members of the al-Shabab extremist group in Somalia, the U.S. Africa Command said Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The airstrike was carried out Tuesday morning local time in the Bay region, about 75 kilometers (45 miles) west of the capital, Mogadishu, the U.S. statement said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe assess no civilians were anywhere near the site,\u201d a spokesman for the U.S. Africa Command, Lt. Cmdr. Anthony Falvo, told The Associated Press. He said he did not have the identities of the extremists killed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The al-Shabab members were operating \u201cin close proximity to\u201d Somali army forces and African Union forces in the area \u201cand were deemed as a credible threat,\u201d Falvo said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The U.S. military has carried out several airstrikes against fighters with the al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab in the Horn of Africa nation since President Donald Trump approved expanded military operations against the group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That includes more aggressive airstrikes and considering parts of southern Somalia areas of active hostilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A 22,000-strong multinational African Union force known as AMISOM has been helping to support Somalia\u2019s fragile central government after more than two decades as a failed state. Both it and the U.S. military are trying to prepare Somalia\u2019s armed forces to take over the country\u2019s security before AMISOM\u2019s planned departure by the end of 2020.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A U.S. military drone strike has killed three members of the al-Shabab extremist group in Somalia, the U.S. Africa Command said Wednesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":59047,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":8,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[101,8,12,26],"tags":[],"coauthors":[2644],"class_list":["post-72169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-flashpoints","category-news","category-newsletters"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"EWSIZCQYERFCLMB6SQ7VJ3XUYU","arc_canonical_url":"\/flashpoints\/2017\/09\/06\/us-says-drone-strike-kills-3-al-shabab-extremists-in-somalia\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n