US Admits Killing a Civilian in Somalia Airstrike

New report admits one death and three injuries

A new round of quarterly reports from US African Command (AFRICOM) confirmed that a civilian was killed and three injured in airstrikes above and beyond what they’d previously reported. The death was reported to have happened in Jilib in February.

AFRICOM said that the Jilib strike killed one al-Shabaab and no civilians. This was one of several reports that AFRICOM had of civilian deaths that they looked into. AFRICOM says an online form made it easier for locals to report deaths.

US forces have never just admitted civilian deaths when they’ve attacked, but this new quarterly review brings the total actually killed to five.

Amnesty, which has been deeply critical of the lack of transparency on US operations, has called on the US to show some accountability to the families of victims killed. They said the admissions are at least tentative progress.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.