US airstrikes hit Somalia’s Puntland region on December 25, Christmas Day, according to a press release from US Africa Command, as the Trump administration continues a record-shattering bombing campaign in the country.
The command said that its forces conducted “airstrikes” against the ISIS affiliate in the Puntland region, about 55 miles to the southeast of the Gulf of Aden port city of Bosaso. AFRICOM offered no other details about the strikes, as it stopped sharing casualty estimates earlier this year.
The Christmas strikes were part of a series of US attacks announced last week by AFRICOM. The command said its forces launched airstrikes in the same area on December 22, December 23, and December 24.
In Puntland, the US backs local forces since the region is not under the control of the Mogadishu-based Federal Government, which is fighting its own war against al-Shabaab. The US-backed Puntland Counter-Terrorism Operations has not released any information about its recent operations.
AFRICOM also announced last week that its forces conducted an airstrike against al-Shabaab in southern Somalia on December 17.
Based on Antiwar.com’s tally, the latest US bombings bring the total number of US airstrikes in Somalia to at least 127, more than double the previous annual record, which President Trump set at 63 during his first term in 2019. According to New America, an organization that tracks the air war, the airstrikes launched this year are more than were conducted in Somalia during the administrations of Joe Biden, Barack Obama, and George W. Bush combined.
Despite the record-shattering bombing campaign, the US air war receives virtually no coverage in US media. The latest strikes were overshadowed by the first US missile strikes on Nigeria, which were also launched on Christmas.
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.
