Jilib (SD) – The African Union Mission in Somalia (Africom) says it has twice bombed an area near Jilib today, and targeted Al Shabab officials and vehicles loaded with explosives.

A statement from AFRICOM said the bombing was part of the ongoing fight against al-Shabab and that it was committed to continuing to support the federal government of Somalia.

“This strike should demonstrate to any enemy that we stand by our partners and will vigorously defend both ourselves and our partners during this repositioning and future operations,” said Maj. Gen. Dagvin Anderson, Joint Task Force – Quartz commander. “We will continue to maintain strong force protection and strike those who seek to harm us or our partners.”

A statement from AFRICOM said that the number of bombings carried out by Al-Shabaab in the Somali capital since 2018 has risen to 45 and killed at least 400 people.

“We will continue to apply pressure to the al-Shabaab network. They continue to undermine Somali security, and need to be contained and degraded,” said U.S. Army Gen. Stephen Townsend, commander, U.S. Africa Command.

The Federal Government of Somalia (FGS) has said that with the help of ARICOM, it has carried out an airstrike on an Al-Shabaab-owned bomb-making factory in the Jilib area.

The federal government claimed in a preliminary assessment that ten al-Shabab fighters had been killed in the bombing.

The airstrike could be the last attack of the US forces in the country as US President Trump ordered the US forces leave the country before January 2021.