US Africa Command said in a press release on Monday that its forces had launched “multiple airstrikes” as part of a two-week operation against the ISIS affiliate in Somalia’s northeastern Puntland region that concluded on August 23.
“Operations consisted of targeted strikes against ISIS leadership safe havens in the Golis Mountains,” the command said, offering no other details about the strikes. “Specific details about the operation will not be released in order to ensure operations security.”
AFRICOM said that the operation was launched in “coordination with the Federal Government of Somalia,” but the US-backed Mogadishu-based government doesn’t control Puntland, and the US military backs local forces on the ground in the campaign against the ISIS affiliate, which is an offshoot of al-Shabaab.
An X account for the Puntland Counter-Terrorism Operations has announced a series of operations against ISIS fighters in the mountains in recent weeks, claiming to have captured caves the militants were using as hideouts. It said on August 24 that there were “ongoing airstrikes and ground operations” meant to “eliminate the remaining ISIS fugitives hiding in limited areas,” signaling the fighting isn’t over.
AFRICOM also announced on Monday that its forces launched an airstrike against al-Shabaab in southern Somalia on August 22, as the US has been providing the Federal Government with heavy air power in recent battles.
AFRICOM did not say how many airstrikes it launched during the two-week campaign against ISIS. But counting the operation as a minimum of two airstrikes, the campaign and the latest attack against al-Shabaab bring the total number of US airstrikes in Somalia this year to 61.
The Trump administration has been bombing Somalia at a record pace and is close to breaking the record for annual US airstrikes in the country, which Trump set at 63 in 2019 during his first term. Despite the heavy bombings, the US air war in Somalia gains virtually no media coverage in the US.
