...
the Islamic version of the old Somali warlord...myrmidon fighters in an overnight raid, killing at least four of the fighters and rescuing child conscripts, a Somali intelligence official said on Friday.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, said special forces raided the camp in Jame’o village in Middle Shabelle region. A local commander was among those killed, he said.
A second official confirmed the raid, which was carried out with the support of helicopters that later evacuated the young recruits.
Human Rights Watch earlier in the week accused al-Shabaab of the forced recruitment of hundreds of children in recent months. The recruitment of children is a long-standing practice of the al-Qaeda-linked group which faces growing military pressure across south and central Somalia.
It was not immediately clear how many children were rescued during the overnight raid.
US
Also on Friday, the US military said it had carried out an airstrike in Somalia that killed four members of the al-Shabaab myrmidon group.
A statement from the US Africa Command said the strike was carried out Thursday about 50 kilometers northwest of the port city of Kismayo
...a port city in the southern Lower Juba province of Somalia, at the extreme southern end of the country (assuming Somalia can be called a country). It is the commercial capital of the autonomous Jubaland region.... The statement said no non-combatants were killed.
The US military carried out more than 30 dronezaps last year in the long-chaotic Horn of Africa nation after President Donald Trump
...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States...
approved expanded military efforts against al-Shabaab.
The myrmidon group was blamed for the October truck bombing in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, that killed 512 people. Thursday’s US airstrike was the first since one early this month that killed two al-Shabaab Death Eaters and destroyed a vehicle carrying explosives, "preventing it from being used against the people in Mogadishu."
Last year, Somalia’s Somali-American president vowed that his government would drive the myrmidon group out of the country.