US Launches Airstrike in Somalia’s Puntland, Says Two ISIS Fighters Killed

US Africa Command said in a press release that it launched an airstrike in northeast Somalia that targeted ISIS fighters, claiming that two were killed.

Local officials in Somalia’s Puntland region put the death toll higher, claiming the US strike killed 16 ISIS militants. AFRICOM also claimed no civilians were harmed in the attack, but the Pentagon is notorious for hiding civilian casualties in Somalia.

AFRICOM said the strike was carried out in coordination with the US-backed Somali government, which is based in Mogadishu, but Puntland is a semi-autonomous region that’s not under the control of the federal government.

Brig. Gen. Mohamud Mohamed Ahmed, a spokesman for security operations in Puntland, told Voice of America that the UAE was also involved in the airstrike. “The United States government and the United Arab Emirates, both our partners supporting us in the fight against terrorists, were involved [in] the strikes on Sunday night,” he said.

The strike marks the second time the US bombed Somalia under the new Trump administration. The previous strike was launched on February 1 and also targeted ISIS fighters in Puntland.

Historically, the US bombing campaign in Somalia has targeted al-Shabaab, which is based in the southern and central parts of the country. Al-Shabaab was born out of a US-backed Ethiopian invasion in 2006 that toppled the Islamic Courts Union, a coalition of Muslim groups who briefly held power in Mogadishu after ousting CIA-backed warlords.

ISIS, another group born out of US intervention, has gained a foothold in Puntland and is estimated to have about 500-700 fighters in Somalia.

During his previous term in office, President Trump dramatically ramped up the drone war against al-Shabaab, but so far, has not targeted the group under his new administration.