Staff Writer With AFP

US Africa Command disputes rights group’s allegations of civilian casualties in Somalia

Amnesty International has accused U.S. forces of killing several civilians in Somalia as they “dramatically increased” the number of air strikes in the volatile country, but the U.S. military denied the deaths. U.S. Africa Command said it had carried out 110 strikes by drones and manned aircraft in the past two years in Somalia, killing over 800 people, but insisted every death was that of a “terrorist.” But Amnesty researchers who investigated five air strikes in detail reported at least 14 civilians had been killed, raising fears the total dead in the scores of attacks may be far higher. “The attacks appear to have violated international humanitarian law, and some may amount to war crimes,” Amnesty said in a Wednesday, March 20 report, titled “The Hidden U.S. War in Somalia.” The study is based on 150 interviews including witnesses, family members of those killed and security experts. Their reports were corroborated by satellite imagery, photographs of the deep craters of the explosions, as well as munition fragments collected from the sites. U.S. strikes, which included missiles fired by manned aircraft as well as drones, targeted Somalia’s Al-Qaeda linked jihadist insurgent group, Al-Shabaab. Amnesty said that since April 2017, the U.S. …