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Kenyan Air Force F5 fighter


At least seven civilians died including children, after unknown jets struck in Jilib District in Somalia’s Middle Juba region on Sunday. The airstrike appears to have targeted the home of Abdulahi Ma’alin, Governor of Jilib district of Juba Valley administration,according to residents who spoke to Somalia Report by phone.

Two jets targeted Ma’lin’s house on Sunday afternoon while he was out of the city, according to residents in Jilib District.

Hassan Biya Malow, a businessman in Jilib District, described the scene, “Five children died in Ma’alin’s house. Only his mother was rescued from this attack as she was not in the house at that time. Two other civilians died, including a teenage girl, and other people were injured,” he told Somalia Report by phone. “There is a military base near this house, so we hope that is why this area was targeted,” Hassan added.

Al-Shabaab spokesman Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage, known as al-Dheere, confirmed the bombing to Somalia Report but denied any al-Shabaab casualties. He said, ”The Kenyan disbelievers keep on targeting civilian homes and destroying them, killing Somali people without reason. The attack killed civilians, mostly women and children, and we are trying to help them by giving them medicine and first aid." He vowed that their fighters will do whatever they can to retaliate against Kenya. “The incursion of Kenya is not aimed only at al-Shabaab but to kill every Somali Muslim, and for that we call on our people to wake up and take up guns to defeat the enemy, which is also the enemy of Allah,” argued al-Dheere.

Residents in Jilib blame this airstrike on Kenya, as several airstrikes targetting al-Shabaab strongholds in the south have been carried out in recent months. Sources in Jilib district told Somalia Report that more than 4 wounded and were taken to Kismayo for treatment.