Al-Shabaab fighters conduct military exercises in northern Mogadishu, Somalia. (AP File Photo)
The U.S. military, acting on President Obama's orders, conducted an airstrike Saturday in Somalia against an al-Shabaab training camp, the administration confirmed on Monday. Around 150 fighters were reported killed.
"This strike was in self-defense and in defense of our African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) partners," U.S. Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James told a news conference on Monday.
"My understanding is that there was intelligence that this was a training camp, and that these fighters would soon be embarking upon missions that would directly impact the U.S. and our partners. And, so that is why it was a self-defense matter. As to what that information was, this is what we simply cannot discuss."
(The Associated, quoting Pentagon officials, reported that fighters at the camp "were preparing to launch a large-scale attack, likely against African or U.S. personnel.")
At the White House on Monday, spokesman Josh Earnest said the attack on the Raso training camp -- located about 120 miles north of Mogadishu -- came as the al-Shabaab fighters were about to leave the area.
"As you know, al-Shabaab is an Al Qaida-affiliated terrorist organization," Earnest said. "The fighters who were scheduled to depart the camp posed an imminent threat to U.S. and African Union mission forces in Somalia. Their removal -- the removal of those terrorist fighters degrades al-Shabaab's ability to meet the group's objectives in Somalia, including recruiting new members, establishing bases and planning attacks on U.S. and AMISOM forces.
"This is a good example of how the United States military can use our resources and capabilities in partnership with forces on the ground, in this case, African Union forces, to counter extremism and protect the United States and our interests. And so this is exactly the kind of counter terrorism strategy that the president has laid out," Earnest said.
A reporter wondered if President Obama is changing his counterterrorism strategy. Drone strikes used to be targeted, she said: "The whole point was that you knew exactly who was being killed -- you knew the names or identifications of the people -- and now these drone strikes have gotten quite big."
Earnest said the nature of the threat has "evolved" from core al-Qaida operating in Afghanistan and Pakistan to different terrorist groups operating in differnt parts of the world.
"And that's why the president has focused on a counterterrorism strategy that supports local partners. We want local partners on the ground that can combat these extremists in their midst. That's the way that we're going to be most effective, and there are any number of things that the United States and other -- and our allies can to do support those local efforts.
"In some cases, that means carrying out airstrikes, in other cases, that means training and equipping local fighters, in other cases, that means sharing valuable intelligence, in other cases, that means doing important diplomatic work that can help them -- that can help a variety of countries work together to address the terrorist threat that's emanating from their region.
"In other cases, it may mean providing economic assistance to a country to allow them to enhance and strengthen their economy and potentially remove at least one recruiting tool that extremist organizations may be missing.
"But all of this is focused on the idea that while the United States has robust capabilities and the president will not hesitate to order the use of those capabilities to protect the American people, at the same time, we're going to be more effective over the long term if we build capacity in these countries for individuals and security forces in these countries to fight for their own countries. And they can certainly count on the United States to support them as they do that."
News of the attack in Somalia came on the same day that it will disclose how many people have been killed by American drones
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