US Africa Command on Monday announced that its forces launched two more airstrikes in Somalia as the Trump administration continues to bomb the country at a record pace.
The command said that both strikes targeted the ISIS affiliate in Somalia’s northeastern Puntland region, where the US is backing local forces. One strike was launched on October 24 and the other on October 26. AFRICOM said both attacks were conducted about 53 miles southeast of the Gulf of Aden port city of Bossaso.
AFRICOM offered no other details as it has stopped sharing casualty estimates and assessments on civilian harm since April. “Specific details about units and assets will not be released to ensure continued operations security,” the command said.
Puntland officials have said they intensified operations against ISIS militants in the Cal-Miskaad mountains with support from AFRICOM. According to a report from Garowe Online, there have been “relentless airstrikes” against ISIS militants in the region with multiple casualties reported, but the report didn’t provide a number.
Puntland officials claim that the ISIS militants are largely defeated, something they’ve been saying for months. But local sources told Garowe that the militants are still entrenched in the area and have resorted to guerrilla tactics and are constantly moving between caves and valleys.
The US has significantly escalated its airstrikes in Puntland and has also continued to provide air support for the US-backed Mogadishu-based government’s war against al-Shabaab in central and southern Somalia. Based on Antiwar.com’s count, the two latest bombings reported by AFRICOM bring the total number of US airstrikes in Somalia this year to 86.
The Trump administration has shattered the previous annual record for US airstrikes in Somalia, which President Trump set at 63 back in 2019. For context, President Biden launched a total of 51 airstrikes in Somalia throughout his four years in office, and President Obama launched 48 over eight years.
The US has been fighting against al-Shabaab since the group first emerged in 2007, a year after the US backed an Ethiopian invasion that ousted the Islamic Courts Union, a Muslim coalition that briefly held power in Mogadishu.
Al-Shabaab was the radical offshoot of the Islamic Courts Union, and its first recorded attack was a suicide bombing that targeted Ethiopian troops occupying Mogadishu. The ISIS affiliate in Somalia started as an offshoot of al-Shabaab and first emerged in 2015.
