The US launched three airstrikes in Somalia against al-Shabaab within the past two weeks, marking an escalation of the US air war in the country.
The series of airstrikes started with one on February 20, which US Africa Command (AFRICOM) said was launched near Bulo Burti in central Somalia. The strike marked the first known US attack on al-Shabaab under the new Trump administration. Earlier in February, the US bombed ISIS targets in northeast Somalia’s Puntland region.
AFRICOM reported another US airstrike in central Somalia that targeted al-Shabaab on February 25. Another US bombing was reported to occur near Bulo Burti on March 1, which AFRICOM claimed killed “several terrorists.”
In all three of the US airstrikes against al-Shabaab, AFRICOM said they were launched in support of the US-backed Mogadishu-based government and described the attacks as “collective self-defense.” The command also claimed its initial assessments found no civilians were harmed, but the Pentagon is notorious for hiding civilian casualties in Somalia.
The ramped-up US airstrikes in Somalia come amid news that President Trump eased restrictions on US airstrikes and special operations raids outside conventional battlefields.
During his first term in office, President Trump also loosened the rules of engagement in the terror wars and dramatically ramped up the drone war against al-Shabaab in Somalia. President Biden continued the war and redeployed troops to Somalia but did not bomb the country nearly at the rate Trump did in his first term.
The US military hypes the threat of al-Shabaab due to its size and al-Qaeda affiliation, but it’s widely believed the group does not have ambitions outside of Somalia.
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.
Al-Shabaab was the radical offshoot of the Islamic Courts Union. The group’s first recorded attack was in 2007, and it wasn’t until 2012 that al-Shabaab pledged loyalty to al-Qaeda after years of fighting the US and its proxies.
