US Africa Command said in a press release on Saturday that its forces launched an airstrike in Somalia on April 17, as the pace of US bombings in the country has escalated amid the very fragile ceasefire between the US and Iran.
AFRICOM said that the strike targeted the ISIS affiliate in Somalia’s northeastern Puntland region and that it was launched in a remote mountain region about 30 miles southeast of the Gulf of Aden port city of Bosaso.
AFRICOM offered no other details about the attack, as it hasn’t been sharing casualty estimates and assessments on potential civilian harm since last year. US-backed forces in Puntland also rarely share any details about the war, and only occasionally release photos that it claims show captured ISIS fighters, who are based in caves.
While the pace of US airstrikes in Somalia slowed slightly at the height of the US-Israeli war against Iran, AFRICOM is still on track to break its annual record of bombings in the country, which President Trump set at 124 last year, breaking a previous record of 63, which he set in 2019.
