Report: U.S. drone attacks in Somalia target senior al Shabaab officials

Two senior al Shabaab officials believed to have links with al Qaeda were wounded in a United States drone attack last week in Somalia, the Washington Post reported on Wednesday citing a U.S. military official.
The official added the aerial strike against senior members of the militant group came as the U.S. government has a growing concern that some leaders in the group are collaborating more closely with al Qaeda, the Post story said.
“They have become somewhat emboldened of late, and, as a result, we have become more focused on inhibiting their activities,” the official added, noting “They were planning operations outside of Somalia.”
The official spelled out that the targeted leaders had direct links with American-born cleric Anwar al-Aulaqi, who escaped a U.S. drone attack in Yemen last month.
U.S. aircraft and Special Operations commandos have carried out other attacks in Somalia against militants linked to al-Qaeda, but the strike last week appears to have been one of the first U.S. drone attacks in Somalia, the report said.
Outgoing CIA chief Leon Panetta said earlier this month that Somalia’s al Shabaab is looking at targets abroad.
On June 23, residents in the town of Kismayo, about 500 kilometers south of Mogadishu, said that unidentified foreign aircraft launched an attack on a military base manned by al-Shabaab in the coastal Qandal area just outside of Kismayo.
An al-Shabaab official told al Shabaab-run Radio al-Andalus that foreign helicopters belonging to what he called the "adversaries of Allah" attacked their fighters while conducting patrol in Qandal neighborhood.
The official stated that two of their fighters were injured, adding they fired back at the attacking helicopters. However, local residents said that two militants died hours later from their injuries, but the report of death is still unverified.
The day after the attack, a man who identified himself only as Abdinasir told All Headline News by phone that they heard the sounds of helicopters after several heavy explosions.
“A military base manned by Al-Shabaab militants including foreign jihadists is believed to be the target of air raids in the coastal Qandal area just outside of Kismayo town,” Abdinasir explained.
Last weekend, local residents said foreign militants had started fleeing Kismayo because military aircraft could be heard overnight in parts of the city.