Waagacusub.com- The United States military says it has killed 13 members of the al-Shabab extremist group with an airstrike 30 miles (48 kilometres) outside Somalia's capital. U.S. Africa Command statement says Friday's strike occurred near Gandarshe in Lower Shabelle region. The statement says the al-Qaida-linked fighters have used Gandarshe as a staging area for bombings in the capital, Mogadishu.

A half-dozen U.S. airstrikes in December killed 62 al-Shabab fighters near Gandarshe as they were preparing to attack a Somali military base.

This is the 10th U.S. airstrike this year in Somalia. It carried out nearly 50 strikes last year in the Horn of Africa nation against al-Shabab, the deadliest Islamic extremist group in Africa.

A strike on Thursday killed 24 al-Shabab fighters in neighbouring Hiran region.