20111030
Press TV
At least 16 civilians have been killed after a US assassination drone launched an attack on southern Somalia near the border with Kenya, Press TV has reported.

The unmanned aerial vehicle fired several missiles at Kulbiyow village, which is situated in the Lower Juba region, on Saturday morning.

The fatalities were mostly women and children. The attack also injured 19 others.

A host of local residents fled for their lives in the wake of the strike.

Somalia is the sixth country, where the US military has used the remotely-controlled aircraft to conduct such lethal attacks.

The United States has already used the drones to carry out aerial bombings in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya, Iraq, and Yemen.

Somalia has been without a functioning government since 1991, when warlords overthrew former dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.

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