At least 46 people have been killed after a US drone attack struck a city in southern Somalia near the border with Kenya, Press TV reported.
The unmanned aircraft fired several missiles into the outskirts of Kismayo, capital of the Lower Juba region and a port city located some 500 kilometers (310 miles) south of the Somali capital of Mogadishu, at around 5:30 p.m. local time (1430 GMT) on Wednesday. At least 46 people were killed and many more were injured in the aerial attack.
Meanwhile, thousands of local residents are fleeing Kismayo city in order to save their lives against the US drone attacks.
Earlier in the day, 18 civilians were killed and 37 others wounded in a US aerial strike on Musa Haji district in southern Somalia.
Drone strikes in Somalia make the lawless state the sixth country where the US military has used remote-controlled aircraft to conduct such lethal strikes.
The United States has now employed drones in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya, Iraq and Yemen to launch aerial bombings.
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.
