US admits killing one civilian in Somalia airstrike

SANAA, July 29 (YPA) – The US has on Wednesday admitted that it killed a civilian and injured three others in an airstrike in Somalia, the second of its kind since quarterly reports on civilian casualties began in its operations in Africa.

According to Reuters, the US Africa Command (AFRICOM) said that an airstrike that was intended to target al-Shabab fighters in Somalia earlier this year killed one civilian and wounded three others, in a rare admission by the Command.

The findings were part of AFRICOM’s second quarterly report on civilian casualties and marks only the third time in AFRICOM’s history that the command has said civilians were killed in Somalia as a result of US airstrikes against Islamist militants.

AFRICOM Commander Army Gen. Stephen Townsend tried to justify the killing of the civilian on the grounds that it was “unintentional”.

E.M