MILITARY: “The United States military said on Sunday [6-11-17] that it had carried out a drone strike in southern Somalia against the Shabab, the Qaeda-linked insurgent group — apparently the first such strike since President Trump relaxed targeting rules for counterterrorism operations in that country in March.
The strike, which the military said targeted a command and logistics portion of a Shabab camp, came two and a half months after Mr. Trump cleared the way for offensive strikes in Somalia, a chaotic nation in the Horn of Africa, without a specific self-defense rationale.
The military said it believed that the strike, which took place around 2:20 a.m. Eastern time about 185 miles southwest of Mogadishu, the capital, had killed eight militants. Military officials said the United States had seen no reports that any civilians were killed.
‘The U.S. conducted this operation in coordination with its regional partners as a direct response to al-Shabab actions, including recent attacks on Somali forces,’ Dana W. White, the Pentagon’s chief spokeswoman, said in a statement.”
-Charlie Savage, Helene Cooper, and Eric Schmitt, “U.S. Strikes Shabab, Likely a First Since Trump Relaxed Rules for Somalia,” The New York Times online, June 11, 2017