US Africa Command announced that its forces launched a series of airstrikes in Somalia in recent days as the Trump administration continues a heavy bombing campaign in the country, which receives virtually no US media coverage.
AFRICOM announced new airstrikes that it said were launched against al-Shabaab in different parts of southern Somalia on June 14, June 16, June 18, and June 19. As usual, the command offered no further details, having stopped sharing casualty estimates and assessments of potential civilian harm last year.
“Specific details about units and assets will not be released to ensure continued operations security,” AFRICOM said in each press release.
The US-backed Somali Defense Ministry said that the Danab, a US-trained special unit of the Somali military, conducted an operation in southern Somalia on June 14 that it claimed killed 14 al-Shabaab militants, but it’s unclear if it was the same operation that involved a US airstrike.
The June 14 strike is the first AFRICOM has announced since May 6, but there have been indications that the US had been launching airstrikes without announcing them, as the Somali Defense Ministry reported several operations between the two strikes, including one it said involved an airstrike and was supported by an “international partner.”
On May 21, a suspected airstrike killed three children and a pregnant woman in Somalia’s northeastern Puntland region, where the US backs local forces against an ISIS affiliate. The UAE is also known to occasionally launch airstrikes in the area, but not nearly as much as the US.
Based on the number of strikes announced by AFRICOM, the US has bombed Somalia at least 67 times this year. President Trump has overseen a massive escalation of the US air war in Somalia, which came after he loosened the rules of engagement by lifting restrictions on US drone strikes and raids carried out outside of officially declared combat zones.
The US launched at least 124 airstrikes in Somalia in 2025, which, according to New America, an organization that tracks the air war, is more than those conducted during the administrations of Joe Biden, Barack Obama, and George W. Bush combined.
The latest US airstrikes in Somalia come amid an election crisis in the country, after many clans and factions have opposed President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, the leader of the US-backed Federal Government, remaining in office following the expiration of his term. The crisis sparked clashes in Mogadishu and elsewhere in the country, and Somali media is reporting that the Federal Government may be on the brink of war with the government of Puntland, which the US backs against ISIS.
Source:antiwar.com
