Investigate raid in Somalia, U.S Africa Commander orders

U.S. Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Thomas Waldhauser

The head of U.S. Africa Command has asked the Naval Criminal Investigative Service to look into the details of the raid in Bariire village by Somali troops supported by U.S. special operations forces.

Marine Gen. Thomas Waldhauser through Army Col. Mark Cheadle, a spokesman for Africa Command on Wednesday said he requested for an additional investigation into whether civilians were killed during the deadly August raid in Somalia.

This call was after additional published reports came out saying that local villagers and some government officials were insisting that innocent civilians were killed.

Cheadle said Waldhauser also questioned why there have been discrepancies in how many were killed, and decided an additional investigation was needed.

The August 25 raid targeted a local farm, and the deputy governor, Ali Nur Mohamed, told reporters that the dead including children age 8 to 10 and a woman were killed “one by one mercilessly.”

An assesment on the deadly August raid in Somalia involving American and Somali forces conducted by Africa Command late November, however showed that only armed enemy combatants had been killed.

The U.S. military has carried out several airstrikes against the Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Shabaab in the Horn of Africa nation since President Donald Trump approved expanded military operations against the group.

The U.S. military last month carried out its first drone strikes against ISIS fighters and Al-Shabaab in Somalia killling 40 members of these extremist groups.

The US has about 500 troops in Somalia including Special Operations Forces working as military advisers and conventional logistics personnel.