Amnesty international today accused us forces of killing several civilians in Somalia as they “dramatically increased” the number of air strikes in the volatile country.
The US military however denied the deaths saying 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.
Amnesty said in the report, titled “the hidden us war in Somalia that the attacks appear to have violated international humanitarian law, and some may amount to war crimes.
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 munitions fragments collected from the sites.