US drone attack wounds 2 in Somalia

June 30, 2011|Washington Post

WASHINGTON — A US drone aircraft fired on two leaders of a militant Somali organization tied to Al Qaeda, apparently wounding them, a senior US military official familiar with the operation said yesterday.

The strike last week against senior members of al-Shabab comes amid growing concern within the US government that leaders of the Islamist group are collaborating more closely with Al Qaeda to strike targets beyond Somalia, the official said.

The airstrike makes Somalia at least the sixth country where the United States is using drones to conduct lethal attacks, joining Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya, Iraq and Yemen.

Al-Shabab has battled Somalia’s tenuous government for several years. In recent months, US officials have picked up intelligence that leaders of al-Shabab have expanded ambitions beyond attacks in Somalia.

Both of the al-Shabab leaders targeted in the attack had “direct ties’’ to American-born cleric Anwar al-Aulaqi, the military official said. Aulaqi escaped a US drone strike in Yemen in May.

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