A US-led drone strike has claimed the lives of at least four people in southwestern Somalia, leaving over a dozen others injured Press TV reports.

According to al-Shabab group, 30 others were also wounded in the incident which took place close to Sanguuni village in the Gedo region of Somalia on Sunday.

Further details regarding the incident have not yet been released.

The airstrike comes days after Kenyan and Somali troops drove the fighters out of their last major stronghold in the southern port city of Kismayo.

Kismayo is a strategically important port city on Somalia's Indian Ocean coast located some 500 kilometers (310 miles) south of capital, Mogadishu.

The US military uses remote-controlled drones in Somalia for reconnaissance operations and targeted killings.

Washington has been carrying out assassination attacks using the unmanned aircraft in other countries including Afghanistan, Libya, Pakistan, and Yemen.

The United States claims the CIA-run strikes are aimed at militants. But witness reports and figures offered by local authorities indicate the attacks have led to massive civilian deaths.


The UN has condemned the US assassination drone strikes, saying they pose a challenge to international law.

The weak Western-backed transitional government in Mogadishu has been battling al-Shabab fighters for the past five years, and is propped up by a strong African Union force from Uganda, Burundi, and Djibouti.

Strategically located in the Horn of Africa, Somalia remains among the ones generating the highest number of refugees and internally-displaced persons in the world.

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Press TV