Geolocation
Airwars assessment
One woman and several children were wounded by an alleged US drone strike in El Adde town, Gedo, as up to ten al Shabaab members were targeted and killed, local media reported.
Somali media site Mareeg reported that a US drone strike had injured women and children. Anonymous sources said the victims had been been taken to hospital for medical treatment.
The strike was reported to have hit small residential areas near or within El Adde town in Somalia’s Gedo region, with Mareeg saying this caused the destruction of houses and shops. It also reported that a Somali military aligned radio station had said the strike had killed ten al Shabaab fighters including a senior al Shabaab commander.
Al Shabaab denied that their fighters had been targeted, reportedly releasing photos they said showed the area hit in the strike.
According to Hiiram, “SNA Radio, Somali military mouthpiece said the strike hit group’s militants, killing at least 10 militants including a senior Al-Shabaab commander.”
While the date of the strike was not clear, it was first reported on October 4th. The Bureau of Investigative Journalism reached out to US Africa Command, the US military body responsible for activities in Somalia. It said that the last strike it had carried out was on October 1st. However, the CIA also conducted its own non-disclosable air campaign in Somalia at the time.
The local time of the incident is unknown.
Summary
Sources (2) [ collapse]
Media
from sources (5) [ collapse]
-
Aftermath of the alleged US drone strike in El Adde town, Gedo region, October 4th, 2018 (via Mareeg)
-
Aftermath of the alleged US drone strike in El Adde town, Gedo region, October 4th, 2018 (via Mareeg)
-
Aftermath of the alleged US drone strike in El Adde town, Gedo region, October 4th, 2018 (via Mareeg)
-
Aftermath of the alleged US drone strike in El Adde town, Gedo region, October 4th, 2018 (via Mareeg)
-
Aftermath of the alleged US drone strike in El Adde town, Gedo region, October 4th, 2018 (via Mareeg)
Geolocation notes
Reports of the incident mention that the strike targeted houses and shops in the town of El Adde (or Ceel Gadde). The coordinates for the centre (likely the commercial area) of El Adde are: 3.035991, 41.867834. Due to limited information and satellite imagery available to Airwars, we were unable to verify the location further.