MOGADISHU (Somaliguardian) – At least 18 civilians, including 7 children and 6 women were killed in a drone strike carried out by Turkish air force in a village near the town of Afgoye, some 30km west of Somalia’s capital Mogadishu.
Images circulated on social media showed the bodies of the victims killed in the air raid which took place during evening prayers in the village of Baghdad on Monday.
The strike came hours after Al-Shabaab gunmen ambushed members of the national intelligence and security agency conducting an operation outside Afgoye. Al-Shabaab claimed killing 13 soldiers and released images showing their bodies and others purportedly captured alive.
It is not the first time air strikes carried out by foreign forces supporting the Somali government inflict losses on civilians, on the contrary, dozens of civilians have been killed in air raids in south Somalia over the past months.
Meanwhile, Somalia’s government said in a statement that it had killed 30 militants in the air strike conducted in cooperation with international partners. Local journalists say Turkish drones carried out the botched operation, though Turkey does not often claim responsibility for its military operations in Somalia.
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