US Africa Command said on Friday that its forces launched more airstrikes in Somalia on April 6 and April 7 as the US bombing campaign in the East African country continues with virtually no media coverage.
AFRICOM said the strikes targeted the ISIS affiliate based in Somalia’s northeastern Puntland region, where the US backs local government forces. The bombings were carried out in a remote mountain region between 35 miles and 45 miles southeast of the Gulf of Aden port city of Bosasso.
The strikes were reported by Garowe Online, a media outlet based in Puntland, but Puntland military officials declined to share any details about the operation.
An AFRICOM spokesperson told New America, an organization that tracks the air war, that it conducted one strike on April 6 and two on April 7. The three airstrikes bring the total number of US bombings in the country this year to 52, according to New America’s count.
Somalia’s US-backed federal government, which is based in Mogadishu, also announced airstrikes against al-Shabaab in recent days that it said were backed by “international partners,” which usually means they were conducted by the US. AFRICOM typically takes a few days to acknowledge its airstrikes in Somalia.
The pace of US airstrikes in Somalia slowed down with the start of the US-Israeli war against Iran on February 28, but the US is still on pace to break the annual record for airstrikes in the country, which President Trump set last year at 124 as he dramatically escalated the air war. For context, AFRICOM launched 10 airstrikes in Somalia in all of 2024.
