In 2013 , the UAV 's operating out of the base were moved to a remote desert airstrip — which increased operational security and allayed local fears after a UAV and its Hellfire missile crashed in a Djibouti suburb ; JSOCs predators supported the French during the Bulo Marer hostage rescue attempt . On 28 October 2013 a drone strike by JSOC on a vehicle near the town of Jilib in Lower Shabelle killed two senior Somali members of Al-Shabaab . Preliminary evidence suggested that one of them was Ibrahim Ali ( also known as Anta ) , an explosives specialist known for his skill in building and using homemade bombs and suicide vests . The US administration has been reluctant to use drone strikes in Somalia . The reluctance partly centered on questions of whether Al-Shabaab — which has not tried to carry out an attack on American soil — could legally be the target of lethal operations by the military or the CIA . In May 2013 , the White House announced that it would carry out targeted killing operations '' only '' against those who posed a " continuing and imminent threat to the American people . " The strike on 28 Oct. was the first known American operation resulting in a death since that policy was announced and is considered evidence by some observers that views have changed in Washington and that the Obama administration has decided to escalate operations against Al-Shabaab in the aftermath of the group 's Westgate shopping mall attack in Nairobi , Kenya , that took place from 21 – 24 September 2013 and which left some 70 people dead . According to '' The New York Times '' the Yemen government banned military drone operations after a series of botched drone strikes by JSOC , the last of which was a December 2013 drone strike that killed numerous civilians at a wedding ceremony . Despite a ban on military drone operations the Yemen government allowed CIA drone operations to continue
Westgate shopping mall attack
Westgate shopping mall attack
Joint Special Operations Command