Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby has confirmed that US military operation was carried out against al-Shabaab Islamic militants in Somalia but provided very little details about the nature of the operation. As he has remarked – the results of the operation were being assessed and additional information would be provided as and when appropriate.
The U.S. action comes after Somalia's government forces regained control of a high security prison in the capital that had been attacked by a group of seven heavily armed suspected Islamic militants who attempted to free other extremists held there.
Of course, the Pentagon did not indicate whether the U.S. action had any relation to the prison attack.
As per Somali officials, all the attackers, three government soldiers and two civilians were killed. Incidentally, the Godka Jilacow prison in Mogadishu is an interrogation center for Somalia's intelligence agency, and suspected militants are believed to be held in underground cells in the prison.
The Somali rebel group al-Shabaab is linked to al-Qaeda and claimed responsibility for the attack that shattered a period of calm in Mogadishu after two decades of chaotic violence. As per the sequence of events, a suicide car bomber detonated an explosives-laden vehicle at the gate of the prison, followed by gunmen who fought their way into the prison.
It may be recalled that al-Shabaab gunmen had attacked the upscale Westgate Mall in Nairobi, Kenya, with guns and grenades last September - 67 people died in the attack.
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