MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The airstrike targeted an al-Shabaab militant leader travelling with a convoy in southern Somalia in January 2014. No civilian casualties were reported by US or other Western media, the Volkskrant newspaper said.
According to Volkskrant, this is the first time that a case on collateral damage caused by a US drone strike is referred to a Dutch court.
Goran Sluiter, one of the two Dutch lawyers representing Somalis in court, was quoted by the daily as saying that there is no such thing as a "clean" targeted killing.
Leaks by US whistleblower Edward Snowden showed that the Dutch military intelligence agency MIVD had been providing the United States with intelligence it gathered by sifting through millions of phone calls and text messages by Somalis.