US Africa Command announced on Monday that its forces launched airstrikes in Somalia’s Puntland region on December 19 as the Trump administration continues bombing the country at a record pace, an air war that receives virtually no media coverage in the United States.
AFRICOM said the strikes targeted the small ISIS affiliate about 28 miles to the southeast of the Gulf of Aden port city of Bosaso in a remote mountain region where the US has been backing local Puntland forces in their fight against militants based in caves.
The command offered no other details about the strikes as it stopped sharing casualty estimates and assessments on civilian harm earlier this year. “Specific details about units and assets will not be released to ensure continued operations security,” AFRICOM said.
AFRICOM said its forces launched “airstrikes” but didn’t specify how many. Counting the action as two airstrikes brings the total number of US airstrikes in the country this year to at least 119, an unprecedented number. Antiwar.com has asked AFRICOM to clarify how many total strikes its force has launched in Somalia in 2025, but it didn’t receive a reply at the time of the publication of this article.
The Trump administration is approaching near double the number of airstrikes of the previous annual record of US bombings in Somalia, which President Trump set back in 2019 at 63. According to New America, an organization that tracks the air war, the 119 airstrikes launched this year are more than were conducted in Somalia during the administrations of Joe Biden, Barack Obama, and George W. Bush combined.
Somali media reports suggest that there were more US airstrikes against al-Shabaab in southern Somalia on Monday, but AFRICOM typically takes a few days to confirm its bombings. Al-Shabaab captured a strategic town in southern Somalia as the group continues to make gains despite the unprecedented number of US airstrikes.
In recent months, there have been civilian casualties in operations conducted by the US and US-backed forces in southern Somalia. Last week, local media reported that more than 30 civilians were killed by an attack on a village near Mogadishu that was carried out by a US-trained Somali government force.
On November 15, US airstrikes and US-backed Somali ground forces targeted the village of Jamame, which is near Kismayo. The attack killed at least 11 civilians, including seven children, according to a report from Drop Site News.
A US airstrike in Somalia’s northern Sanag region, west of Puntland, that was launched on September 13, also killed a civilian clan leader who was known for his peace efforts, according to family members, local officials, and a committee that investigated the airstrike. AFRICOM claimed he was an al-Shabaab weapons dealer, but has provided no evidence to back up the assertion.
