The US military said it had killed two fighters from the al Shabaab militant group in an airstrike in a remote part of Somalia’s southern Jubaland state on Sunday.

The United States has been carrying out air strikes in Somalia to try to defeat al Shabaab, an al Qaeda franchise seeking to implement its interpretation of Islamic law and overthrow the country’s Western-backed central government.

The strike took place near Libikus in the Lower Juba region, US Africa Command (Africom) said in a statement late on Monday.

“The command’s initial assessment is that two al Shabaab terrorists were killed in action,” Africom said. “No civilians were injured or killed given the remote nature of where this engagement occurred.”

Rights activists have accused the United States of shrouding its Somalia operations in secrecy, potentially undermining accountability for incidents involving civilian deaths.

• A Reuters report