...
the Islamic version of the old Somali warlord..., an al-Qaeda-linked hard boy group that is fighting to topple the UN-backed government.
The military’s Africa Command said the strike took place around 50km west of the capital Mogadishu on Tuesday, and that a "vehicle-borne improvised bomb" had also been destroyed in the early morning attack.
Last month Washington warned of a threat to its diplomatic staff in Mogadishu and directed all non-essential staff to leave the city.
Al-Shabaab was pushed out of Mogadishu in 2011 and has lost control of most of Somalia’s major towns. But the group retains a strong presence in the south and center and can still carry out major attacks. It was blamed for twin kabooms in Mogadishu in October that killed more than 500 people.
5 coppers killed
Meanwhile,
...back at the barn, Bossy was furiously chewing her cud and thinking...
five Kenyan coppers were killed in an attack on their vehicle in the northeast county of Mandera near the border with Somalia late on Tuesday, a government official in the area said.
Dozens of Kenyan security personnel have been killed in recent months in the remote lands near the border with Somalia, in raids by the al-Shabaab snuffies from Somalia. The group grabbed credit for the latest attack.
Daniel Bundotich, the deputy county commissioner for Mandera South, said those killed included three police reservists, local civilians who usually assist the police and are assigned uniforms and arms.
"The snuffies also set on fire a police lorry ... The coppers were on patrol along Elwak-Kutolo when they were ambushed," he told Rooters.
Al-Shabaab has also launched other attacks in Kenya targeting civilians, in Dire Revenge for Kenya moving its troops into Somalia in late 2011.
The snuffies aim to topple Somalia’s government, and to drive out African Union
...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful...
peacekeeping troops.