MOGADISHU, April 4 (Xinhua) -- Somali and U.S. security forces have killed five al-Shabab terrorists following an airstrike which was conducted in southwest region of Somalia on Friday.
The U.S. Africa Command (Africom) said on Saturday the latest drone strike which targeted the fighters of the extremist group in the vicinity of Bush Madina in Bay region did not injure or kill any civilians.
"It's our command's responsibility to support our partners so this terrorist group can't expand and strike the U.S. homeland as its leaders desire to do," Bradford J. Gering, Africom's deputy director of operations said in a statement.
Gering said the U.S. army and its international partners recognize that stability in Somalia will not be achieved through purely military means but it requires providing programs and opportunity for the Somali people.
The U.S. and partner forces have increased military raids into territory formerly controlled by al-Shabab after driving the insurgents out of Mogadishu in 2011.
The al-Qaida allied extremist group which has lost control of much of the territory it once held in Somalia still stages high-profile attacks in Mogadishu and elsewhere.
