Over 150 Al-Shabaab militants killed in U.S. airstrike in Somalia

The United States carried out an airstrike in Somalia over the weekend, killing more than 150 fighters with the al Qaida-linked Islamist group Al-Shabaab in the country's central region.

Both Somali and U.S. officials said the Somali militants, who were preparing for a major attack in the region, were targeted at a training camp about 200 kilometers north of the capital Mogadishu.

District Commissioner of Bulu-burte town of Hiraan region, Abdiaziz Durow told Xinhua on Tuesday the airstrike occurred at area about 60 kilometers to the town and targeted Al-Shabaab militants.

"We got the information that over 100 Al-Shabaab members, including top officials were killed and many others wounded. They were closing a training course for the group members and had planned to carry out a massive terror activity in the region," Durow told Xinhua by phone.

The government administrator said they have not established who was behind the killings, but were trying to find out senior militants who were killed during the attack on Sunday night.

His remarks came after Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis said on Monday that both manned and unmanned aircraft were used in the strike in the weekend attack.

Davis said top Pentagon officials had been monitoring the camp for several weeks before the strike, and had gathered intelligence, including about an imminent threat posed by the trainees.

The insurgents have been staging deadly attacks in the recent past in the Horn of Africa nation, including the Jan. 15 attack in which dozens of Kenyan soldiers were massacred in Gedo region of southern Somalia. Enditem