US Africa Command said on Monday that its forces launched an airstrike in Somalia on March 27 as the Trump administration continues the bombing campaign in the east African country amid the US-Israeli war against Iran.
AFRICOM said the strike targeted al-Shabaab and was launched about 80 miles northwest of the southern city of Kismayo. The command offered no other details of the strike, saying, “Specific details about units and assets will not be released to ensure continued operations security.”
The US-backed Somali Defense Ministry announced operations and battles against al-Shabaab on March 26 and March 29, but not on the day of the strike claimed by AFRICOM.
The US-backed Somali federal government has also been clashing with the local government of Somalia’s South West State and took control of its capital, Baidoa, on Saturday.
The federal government, which is based in Mogadishu, has been at odds with many of the Federal States in Somalia over changes it made to the constitution and plans to implement universal suffrage, a break from Somalia’s traditional clan-based voting system.
The push to take over Baidoa came after the Federal Government rejected the results of the South West State’s local election, which saw the re-election of President Abdiaziz Hassan Mohamed Laftagareen, who reportedly resigned after federal troops entered the city.
Besides backing the federal government in its fight against al-Shabaab, the US has been supporting the Puntland government, which withdrew from the federal system in 2024 over a similar dispute. The US has been launching airstrikes against an ISIS affiliate based in caves in a remote mountain region in Puntland.
The March 27 strike against al-Shabaab marked at least the 48th 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.
