President Donald Trump has ramped up airstrikes against al-Shabab in Somalia. (Associated Press/Farah Abdi Warsameh)
The U.S. military could be guilty of war crimes in Somalia, according to a new report that challenges what the government says about civilian casualties from its bombing campaign against al-Shabab, an al-Qaida affiliate, in the African nation.
The investigation, conducted by Amnesty International, found that US airstrikes from both drones and manned aircraft killed at least 14 civilians and injured seven more people in just five of more than 100 strikes in the past two years.
"The attacks appear to have violated international humanitarian law, and some may amount to war crimes," the Amnesty report said.
Six people who have previously expressed anti-government sentiment have been detained as the police hunt for others behind what Venezuela's government say called a failed attempt to assassinate President Nicholas Maduro with an drone explosives-laden during a military celebration.
Amid gradually escalating U.S. military involvement in countries like YemenandSomalia, a new analysis suggests that the Department of Defense has conducted 550 drone strikes in Libya since 2011, a wave of airstrikes that eclipses those conducted in Yemen, Somalia, and even Pakistan.
U.S. military drone strikes on an Islamic State training camp in Libya that killed 17 militants on Sept. 22 were the first carried out in the North African country since President Donald Trump took office in January, The New York Times reports.
