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U.S. Carries Out 3 Drone Strikes Targeting Extremists in Somalia

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(MOGADISHU, Somalia) — U.S. forces say they have carried out three drone strikes within 24 hours in Somalia, stepping up their campaign against the Islamic extremist rebels of al-Shabab and the Islamic State group.

The strikes by unmanned drones killed several extremist fighters, a spokeswoman for the U.S. military command in Africa told The Associated Press Sunday. With these three attacks, the U.S. has now carried out 26 attacks in Somalia against extremist targets in 2017, she said.

The latest U.S. strikes were carried out in coordination with Somalia’s government, she said.

The first strike happened Saturday at approximately 4:30 p.m. local Somalia time and it killed one fighter for the extremists group, al-Shabab, said a U.S. Africa command statement. The strike occurred near Gaduud, about 250 miles southwest of the capital, Mogadishu, it said.

The U.S. strike came after al-Shabaab attacked a convoy of U.S. and Somali forces, it said.

“We assess no civilians were anywhere near the site,” said the spokeswoman. “We take all measures during the targeting process to painstakingly ensure that civilian casualties and collateral damages are avoided and that we comply with the principles of the Law of Armed Conflict.”

The second strike occurred Sunday at approximately 3 a.m. against al-Shabaab, in the Lower Shabelle region about 40 miles west of the capital Mogadishu.

Al-Shabab, the deadliest Islamic extremist group in Africa, has been blamed for the massive truck bombing in Mogadishu last month that killed more than 350 people. It was Somalia’s worst-ever attack and one of the world’s deadliest in years.

Al-Shabab has pledged allegiance to al-Qaida “and is dedicated to providing safe haven for terrorist attacks throughout the world,” said the spokeswoman, adding that al-Shabab “has publicly committed to planning and conducting attacks against the U.S. and our partners in the region.”

The third strike was against the Islamic State group in Somalia’s northern Puntland area, she said. It happened at about 9 a.m. Sunday. This is the second U.S. strike against the IS group in Somalia. The first was earlier this month. The IS group has emerged in Somalia over the past two years and many of its fighters have defected from al-Shabab.

“U.S. forces will continue to use all authorized and appropriate measures to protect Americans and to disable terrorist threats,” said the spokeswoman. The U.S. forces are working with Somalia’s security forces and the 22,000-strong African Union force of soldiers from neighboring countries and they are “targeting terrorists, their training camps and safe havens throughout Somalia, the region and around the world,” she said.

The Trump administration earlier this year approved expanded military operations against extremists in this Horn of Africa nation.

Somalia’s president has vowed a “state of war” against the extremists but concern is growing about that when the African Union force leaves Somalia, the national army will not be able to cope. The AU this week announced the beginning of its withdrawal from the long-chaotic and still heavily fractured nation, saying it will cut 1,000 troops by the end of the year. The AU pullout is set to be complete by the end of 2020.

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Briefing Room

Somalia’s Humanitarian & Disaster Management Minister resigned citing “Confusion and Disorder”

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(GOOBJOOG NEWS) Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management Dr. Maryan Qasim said Wednesday she quit the job following what she termed as ‘confusion and disorder’ in government.

Addressing the media shortly after confirming her resignation to Goobjoog News, Dr. Qasim said she could not put up with the level of ‘confusion and disorderly manner in which the government operates’ but noted she was not in any way opposed to the government.

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Briefing Room

U.S. says fresh drone strike in Somalia kills “several” Al-Shabaab militants

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Samuel Chamberlain

The US Africa Command announced the U.S. military conducted another airstrike in Somalia on Tuesday killing ‘several militants’ belonging to the terrorist group, al-Shabaab.

A defense official tells Fox that a drone carried out the strike 60 miles northwest of the capital, Mogadishu. The U.S. military has carried out airstrikes for six consecutive days in Somalia beginning last Thursday, killing over 45 al-Shabaab and ISIS fighters.

A spokeswoman from U.S. Africa Command tells Fox News it is not immediately clear if any more strikes have been launched Wednesday.

Earlier this month the US launched the first airstrikes against ISIS in Somalia. Last month, the U.S. conducted its first strikes against ISIS in Yemen, days after the ISIS so-called capital in Raqqa, Syria crumbled.

There have been roughly 30 airstrikes in Somalia in 2017 after President Trump authorized the military to begin conducting offensive airstrikes against terrorists groups in Somalia.

The rise of airstrikes in Somalia and Yemen coincides with more bombs being dropped in Afghanistan as thousands of American troops arrive to ramp up the fight against the Taliban.

The U.S. has dropped twice as many bombs on the Taliban and an ISIS affiliate in Afghanistan this year than all of last year, according to a new report from the U.S. Air Force.

As the ISIS fight in Iraq and Syria winds down, more jets are being tasked to conduct strikes in Afghanistan. The U.S.-led air wars in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan are run out of the same operations center on a base in Qatar.

There are roughly 400 US troops on the ground in Somalia. In May, a Navy SEAL was killed fighting al-Shabaab, the first US combat death in Somalia since the “Black Hawk Down” incident in 1993.

“Al-Shabaab has pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda and is dedicated to providing safe haven for terrorist attacks throughout the world. Al-Shabaab has publicly committed to planning and conducting attacks against the U.S. and our partners in the region,” said US Africa Command in a statement.

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Briefing Room

How Somalia lost millions of dollars to fish poachers

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Up to 2.4 million tonnes of fish have been illegally caught off Somali waters in the past six decades, a new study shows.

The study notes that from the 1990s, much of the fish was shipped away by foreign trawlers, denying the country millions of dollars in fisheries revenues every year.

The study was conducted by scientists working with the maritime lobby, Sea Around Us, at the Universities of British Columbia and Western Australia’s Indian Ocean division as well as peace lobby One Earth Future’s Secure Fisheries programme.

Somalian waters are some of the world’s most productive, with stocks of tuna, shark, swordfish, sardines, squid, and countless species of commercially valuable fish, providing food for coastal communities.

The domestic fishing sector annually contributes about $135 million to the economy.

Destructive fishing practices, illegal fishing, insecurity caused by conflict, underdeveloped infrastructure and competition from foreign fishing boats threaten the long-term sustainability of Somali fisheries.

One study’s findings, recently published in Marine Policy, also reveals 80 per cent more fish were caught from the country’s waters over the past six decades, contrary to official reports.

Exploitation

Lack of proper monitoring and control allowed foreign industrial vessels to exploit Somali marine resources or operate under dubious licences in the years before the Federal Government was established in 2012.

“Using catch reconstruction, which improves the completeness of statistics assembled by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, our researchers determined that foreign boats were responsible for more than half of the total amount of fish taken from Somali waters between 1950 and 2015,” the report says.

With more reliable and accurate data on each sector’s catch, the researchers say the Somali government can strengthen recently passed legislation and develop income generating policies for small-scale domestic fisheries, while at the same time controlling the amount of fish that legally licensed foreign vessels catch.

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MADAXWEYNE FARMAAJO “SABABTA DALKU 10 SANO DAGAAL UGU JIRO WAA DANLEEYDA SIYAASADEED”

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