The U.S. military has hit an al-Shabab training camp in Somalia using both drones and manned aircraft, killing at least 150 of the al-Qaida fighters, the Pentagon says.
The weekend strikes hit an al-Shabab training camp about 120 miles north of the capital, Mogadishu, NPR's Tom Bowman reports. Here's more from Tom:
"A Pentagon spokesman, Capt. Jeff Davis, [who provided the casualty figure] says U.S. intelligence indicated that al-Shabab was preparing for what he called a 'large scale attack' on American and Somali troops. ... "There are several dozen U.S. advisers in Somalia, working with government and regional troops. "Al-Shabab was pushed out of Mogadishu four years ago by African Union peacekeeping troops but still remains a threat. Last month dozens of Kenyan troops were killed when al-Shabab attacked an African Union base in southwest Somalia."
A statement from the Pentagon says the fighters "who were scheduled to depart the camp posed an imminent threat to U.S. and [African Union Mission In Somalia] forces."
The Pentagon has provided no details about the nature of the alleged planned attack.
Somalia's Foreign Minister Abdusalam Omer told Reuters that "the Somali intelligence agency has provided information about the camp to the U.S. in the runup to the attack."
The Associated Press reports that the White House says it plans to disclose records of civilian and militant deaths as a result of drone strikes since the time President Obama took office "in the coming weeks."
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