MOGADISHU, March 8, (Agencies): Somali Islamist group al Shebab confirmed on Tuesday that the United States had bombed an area it controlled but said the US figure of more than 150 casualties was an exaggeration. The Pentagon had said it launched air strikes on a training facility on Saturday that had killed 150 fighters with the al Qaeda-linked group in the Horn of Africa nation.

“The US bombed an area controlled by al Shebab. But they exaggerated the fi gure of casualties. We never gather 100 fighters in one spot for security reasons. We know the sky is full of planes,” the group’s military spokesman Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab told Reuters. He did not give a casualty figure or offer further details about the raid.

The strike, using both planes and unmanned MQ-9 Reaper drones, targeted al Shebab’s “Raso” training camp, a facility about 120 miles north of the capital Mogadishu, the Pentagon said.