Al Shabaab has said that US air strikes have killed two Cubans the group was holding as captives in Somalia.
The group said in a statement that the deadly raids took place on Feb. 15 in the city of Jilib, about 370 km (230 miles) southwest of Somalia’s capital Mogadishu.
It identified the dead Cuban captives as Assel Herrera and Landy Rodriguez.
Al Shabaab added that it had captured the Cubans in 2019 from the northeastern Kenyan county of Mandera, near the Somali border.
The group’s statement was published on Feb. 17 by online news outlets affiliated to it.
“Thursday morning’s drone strikes against the Cuban prisoners once again sheds light on the recklessness and desperate nature of AFRICOM’s operations in Somalia, as well as the incompetence of the American crusaders and their faulty intelligence apparatus that has led to the murder of the
two hostages,” the statement said.
AFRICOM, or the US Africa Command which has conducted airstrikes against Al Shabaab in the past, did not immediately comment on the group’s claim.
The two Cubans were part of a group of doctors sent to Kenya in 2018 as part of a deal between the two countries to help improve medical services in Kenya.
They were kidnapped while heading to a hospital in Mandera for work from their hotel.
