US tells staffers of Somalia mission to leave over threat

The US has ordered all non-essential employees of its mission to Somalia to leave the capital, Mogadishu, because of “specific threat information” against them.
Saturday’s statement says the information relates to Mogadishu International Airport.
Somalia remains one of the world’s most dangerous countries. The US has not had an embassy there since 1991 and calls security “extremely unstable.”
Somalia’s capital was rocked last month by the country’s worst attack, which killed more than 350 people.
The US on Friday carried out its first airstrikes against Daesh fighters in Somalia.
The US Mission to Somalia is based in neighboring Kenya. The first US ambassador to Somalia in a quarter-century told Radio Muqdisho in June that offices for a permanent diplomatic presence were expected to open in Mogadishu this year.
The US Africa Command said the two drone strikes killed “several terrorists” in northeastern Somalia, with the first around midnight local time and the second later Friday morning. The US said the strikes were carried out in coordination with Somalia’s government.
Local officials confirmed the strikes. At least six missiles struck in Buqa, a remote mountainous village roughly 60km north of Qandala town in the northern state of Puntland, a Somali security official told The Associated Press (AP).
The airstrike may have targeted top leaders of the group, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
The mayor of Qandala, Jama Mohamed, said the strikes sent terrified nomadic villagers and their animals fleeing.
The US military this year has carried out well over a dozen drone strikes against Al-Shabab extremists after the Trump administration approved expanded efforts against the group. Al-Shabab has been blamed for carrying out Somalia’s deadliest attack in Mogadishu last month that killed more than 350 people. Somalia’s president has vowed a “state of war,” with neighbors sending in thousands of troops to help the local military and an African Union force.