DHAKA: US military forces conducted an operation Monday against the Al-Shabaab network in Somalia, CNN reports. 

No other information was immediately available. The Pentagon did not say who was targeted, where in Somalia the operation took place nor why the operation was happening now.

The United States designated Al-Shabaab, an al Qaeda-linked militant group, as a foreign terrorist organization in March 2008. It has targeted Al-Shabaab leaders in Somalia at least twice in the past year.

Also Monday, the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) announced that military forces had liberated several important towns from the terrorists' grip, in the Middle Shabelle and Hiiran regions

The developments come just one day after Al-Shabaab fighters dressed in government military uniforms approached the gate of a high security prison in Mogadishu, set off a car bomb and fired their way into the building.

BDST: 1027 HRS, SEP 02, 2014,