US Africa Command announced that its forces launched another airstrike in Somalia, marking at least the 69th time the US has bombed the country this year as the Trump administration continues a record-shattering bombing campaign that receives virtually no US media coverage.
AFRICOM said the strike was launched on June 23, targeting al-Shabaab about 14 miles southeast of Afmadow, a city in Somalia’s southern Lower Juba region. The command offered no other details about the attack as it stopped sharing casualty estimates and assessments on potential civilian harm last year.
“Specific details about units and assets will not be released to ensure continued operations security,” AFRICOM said. There were also no statements from the US-backed government about operations in the area that day.
AFRICOM told Antiwar.com earlier this week that its forces had conducted 68 airstrikes so far this year, making the June 23 strike at least the 69th, putting it on track to break the record for annual US airstrikes in the country that the Trump administration set last year at 124.
On top of the war against al-Shabaab, the US has also been bombing an ISIS affiliate in northeastern Somalia’s Puntland region, and AFRICOM said that the last strikes launched there were conducted in early May, though there have been airstrikes reported in the region, including one that killed civilians on May 21. The UAE is also known to launch strikes in the area, though not nearly as frequently as the US.
The recent US airstrikes in Somalia come amid an election crisis in the country, after many clans and factions have opposed President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, the leader of the US-backed Federal Government, remaining in office following the expiration of his term, which he justifies by pointing to amendments his government added to the constitution. The crisis sparked clashes in Mogadishu and elsewhere in the country, and Somali media is reporting that the Federal Government may be on the brink of war with the government of Puntland, which the US backs against ISIS.
The US has been involved in Somalia for decades and has been fighting al-Shabaab since the George W. Bush administration backed an Ethiopian invasion in 2006 that ousted the Islamic Courts Union, a Muslim coalition that briefly held power in Mogadishu after taking the city from CIA-backed warlords.
Al-Shabaab was the radical offshoot of the Islamic Courts Union, and its first recorded attack was a suicide bombing in 2007 that targeted Ethiopian troops occupying Mogadishu. It wasn’t until 2012 that the group pledged loyalty to al-Qaeda. The ISIS affiliate in Puntland started as an offshoot of al-Shabaab and first emerged in 2015.
