Pentagon: US drone strike hits training camp in Somalia

WASHINGTON – The Pentagon says a U.S. drone strike on Saturday struck a training camp for al-Shabab fighters in Somalia who were preparing to launch a large-scale attack, likely against African or U.S. personnel.

Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, says the strike hit Raso Camp, killing more than 150 fighters. He says the U.S. was watching the camp for weeks. He says it appeared that the training was ending and the operational phase of a suspected attack was about to start.

Davis says the training camp, about 120 miles north of Mogadishu, was destroyed.

The al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab has been linked to a number of attacks, including the detonation of a bomb aboard a commercial passenger jet last month that forced the plane to make an emergency landing in Mogadishu.