The US has launched four more airstrikes in Somalia, according to press releases from US Africa Command, as the Trump administration continues bombing the country at a record pace.
AFRICOM said in two separate press releases that it conducted airstrikes against al-Shabaab in different parts of southern Somalia on January 8. The command said one strike was launched near Saakow, Somalia, in the Middle Juba region.
According to Somalia’s Defense Ministry, the strike was part of an attack that destroyed an al-Shabaab explosives factory and killed 18 militants. AFRICOM provided no details on casualties or assessments of potential civilian harm, as it stopped sharing that information early last year.
The second airstrike the US launched against al-Shabaab on January 8 targeted Buur Heybe, about 95 miles northwest of Mogadishu. Somalia’s Defense Ministry announced that its US-trained Danab force conducted an operation in the same area that it claimed “eliminated 22 terrorists” and said the Danab received support from “international partners.”
The US airstrikes in support of the Mogadishu-based Federal Government come after the Trump administration announced it was suspending aid to the government over allegations that it demolished a World Food Program warehouse, a claim Somali officials deny. The continued US strikes indicate that the suspension of aid will not affect US military operations in the country.
AFRICOM also announced that its forces launched airstrikes against the ISIS affiliate in Somalia’s northeastern Puntland region on January 8 and January 9. The command said that both strikes were launched about 20 miles southeast of the Gulf of Aden port city of Bosaso.
The latest US attacks in Somalia bring the total number of US airstrikes in the country so far in 2026 to at least eight, a tally based on the number of press releases put out by AFRICOM. The command told Antiwar.com in an email over the weekend that it launched a total of 124 airstrikes in Somalia in 2025, a record-shattering number, nearly double the previous annual record of 63, which President Trump set during his first term in 2019.
