US Africa Command (AFRICOM) has reported yet another US airstrike in Somalia as the second Trump administration has significantly ramped up the air campaign in the country, a US war that goes on with virtually no media coverage.
AFRICOM said in a press release on Tuesday that its forces launched an airstrike on May 24 in coordination with the US-backed government that targeted al-Shabaab about 40 miles northwest of the southern Somali city of Kismayo.
The command offered no other information about the strike and has previously said it was no longer sharing estimates on casualties or assessments on civilian harm as the Trump administration “settles in.”
The attack marked the 27th US airstrike AFRICOM has reported since President Trump was sworn in and the 28th of the year. If the pace continues, the administration is set to break the record for the most US airstrikes in Somalia in a single year, which Trump set at 63 in 2019.
US airstrikes in Somalia this year have also targeted the small ISIS affiliate in the country’s northeastern Puntland region. A US Navy commander recently claimed that a February 1 US attack on ISIS cave complexes was the “largest airstrike in the history of the world” and involved 16 F/A-18 fighter jets firing 125,000 pounds of bombs.
The White House has claimed that US airstrikes on Somalia have killed more than 100 “terrorists” under the current administration. It’s unclear if there has been harm to civilians in the bombing campaign, as there is no accountability due to the lack of media coverage in the US.
AFRICOM told Antiwar.com in a May 16 email that it assessed “there have been no civilian harm or civilian casualties in any of our recent strikes,” but the Pentagon has a history of hiding civilian casualties in Somalia.
