US Africa Command said on Saturday that its forces launched an airstrike in Somalia on March 19 as the Trump administration continues its record-breaking bombing campaign in the country amid the US-Israeli war against Iran.
AFRICOM said the strike targeted al-Shabaab about 50 miles northeast of the town of Jamaame in Somalia’s Lower Juba region. The command offered no other details about the attack, saying, “Specific details about units and assets will not be released to ensure continued operations security.”
The US-backed Somali government didn’t release a statement on military operations that day, but it recently escalated its campaign against al-Shabaab. On March 1, the Somali Defense Ministry released a statement announcing “Operation Rolling Thunder,” the same name the US used for a major bombing campaign in the Vietnam War.
The Somali Defense Ministry said its new operation was focused on Somalia’s Lower Shabelle region, north of the Lower Juba region. “The forces, supported by AUSSOM (African Union) troops from Uganda and international partners, are conducting operations aimed at dismantling key Al-Shabaab strongholds and cutting off the routes used for their terrorist activities,” the ministry said.
The US has also been launching airstrikes in the northeastern Puntland region against an ISIS affiliate, which started in 2015 as an offshoot of al-Shabaab.
The March 19 strike marked at least the 47th time the US bombed Somalia this year, according to AFRICOM’s numbers. There’s been a slight decrease in the rate of US bombings in the country following the start of the war with Iran, but the Trump administration is still on pace to break the record for annual US airstrikes in Somalia, which it set last year at 124.
President Trump oversaw a major escalation of the US bombing campaign in Somalia after he came into office last year. According to New America, an organization that tracks the air war, the US launched more airstrikes in Somalia in 2025 than were conducted during the administrations of Joe Biden, Barack Obama, and George W. Bush combined. Despite the unprecedented bombing campaign, the US air war in Somalia receives virtually no media coverage in the US.
