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Thursday February 22, 2024
The United States Africa Command (Africom) said Wednesday that it is assessing whether its recent airstrike against al-Shabab in Somalia killed two Cuban doctors held hostage by the militant group since 2019.
Al-Shabab claimed in a statement on Feb. 17 that a U.S. airstrike hit a house in Jilib District in southern Somalia, killing Assel Herrera and Landy Rodriguez, the two Cuban doctors whom they had abducted in Kenya in April 2019.
Alvine Phillips, the U.S. Africa Command spokesperson, confirmed that the U.S. military carried out the airstrike on Feb. 15 near Jilib, a stronghold of the al-Shabab terrorist group.
Phillips said Africom was aware of reports of a strike alleged to have killed two civilians in southern Somalia.
“We do not have further information at this time about these reports, but we did take all claims of civilian casualties seriously,” Phillips said in a statement obtained by Xinhua.
“The command will continue to assess the results of this operation and will provide additional information as available,” he added.
The two Cuban doctors were abducted in 2019 in an attack in Mandera Town in northeastern Kenya, and they were taken to Somalia by the militants.
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