US Airstrike In Somalia Kills 52 Al-Shabaab Extremists

File photo of al-Shabaab militants.

The US military has killed dozens of al-Shabaab extremists in an air strike in response to a "large group" mounted an attack on Somali forces.

The US Africa Command said the air strike near Jilib in Middle Juba region left 52 militants dead.

The US statement did not say whether any Somali forces were killed or wounded by the al Qaida-linked extremists.

On Saturday morning, al-Shabaab fighters overran a military camp on the outskirts of the town of Kismayo.

Al-Shabaab controls large parts of rural southern and central Somalia and continues to carry out high-profile suicide bombings and other attacks in the capital, Mogadishu, and elsewhere.

The Islamic extremist group claimed responsibility for the deadly attack on a luxury hotel complex in the capital of neighbouring Kenya on Tuesday, the latest assault inside that county in retaliation for Kenya sending troops to Somalia to fight al-Shabaab.

WATCH: former SAS soldier Phil Campion explains how a Special Forces trooper helped secure the Kenyan hotel

The United States has dramatically stepped up air strikes against al-Shabaab in Somalia since President Donald Trump took office, carrying out at least 47 such strikes last year.

Some have targeted top al-Shabaab leaders or key financial officials. The extremist group funds its attacks with an extensive network of "taxation" and extortion.

In October, the US said an air strike killed about 60 fighters near the al-Shabaab-controlled community of Harardere in Mudug province in the central part of the country.

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The air strikes hamper the extremist group but have not "seriously degraded al-Shabaab's capability to mount strikes either inside or outside Somalia," Matt Bryden of Sahan Research, an expert on the extremists, said after the Nairobi hotel attack.

Airstrikes alone cannot defeat the extremists, Mr Bryden said, and must be combined with more ground-based attacks as well as a non-military campaign to win over residents of extremist-held areas.