US Africa Command announced on Saturday that its forces carried out airstrikes against al-Shabaab in southern Somalia and also conducted a raid against the ISIS affiliate in Somalia’s northeastern Puntland.
Both operations took place on Friday, and AFRICOM shared virtually no details about the airstrikes or the ground raid. The US-backed Somali Defense Ministry announced on Friday that it repelled an al-Shabaab attack in Sabiib, a town in Somalia’s Lower Shabelle region.
The Defense Ministry said that it fought with Uganda’s military, which is operating in Somalia under the African Union’s AUSSOM mission. The ministry said four Somali soldiers and 18 al-Shabaab fighters were killed in the fighting, and it credited “aerial strikes” launched by an “international partner” for “inflicting heavy damage on al-Shabaab militants.”
AFRICOM said in its press release that its forces carried out “airstrikes” near Sabiid, suggesting it launched more than one. Counting the attack as two airstrikes brings the total number of US airstrikes in Somalia this year to at least 53, putting the Trump administration well on track to break the annual record of 63, which President Trump set during his first term in 2019.
AFP reported last week that US-backed Somali government forces had “melted” in the face of an al-Shabaab offensive and lost most of the territory it gained in 2022 and 2023. Despite the losses, the Trump administration has doubled down on the policy of propping up the increasingly unpopular Federal Government.
In its press release on the raid in Puntland, AFRICOM said that it “conducted an operation against the ISIS-Somalia terrorist network in Somalia on July 25” and added that “specific details about units and assets will not be released to ensure continued operations security.”
The US backs local forces in Puntland, who said in a post on X that the US captured the ISIS affiliate’s alleged finance chief, Abdiweli Mohamed Yusuf, along with two other people. The US has been launching a significant number of airstrikes against the ISIS affiliate in Puntland this year.
While the US has been bombing Somalia at a record pace this year, the air war gains virtually no US media coverage.