The US and the UAE have both launched airstrikes targeting al-Shabaab in northern Somalia’s Puntland region in recent days amid clashes in the area between al-Shabaab and local Puntland forces.
US Africa Command said in a press release on Wednesday that its forces launched a strike on October 19 in the Cal Madow Mountains, about 22 miles south of the Gulf of Aden port city of Bosaso, where the US and the UAE have established a military presence. AFRICOM offered no details about the strike, as it has stopped sharing casualty estimates and assessments on civilian harm.
The AFP reported that the UAE had also conducted a drone strike in the Galgala mountain pass in the Cal Madow Mountains on October 20, marking the first known UAE airstrike in Somalia in nearly a year. Sources told the outlet that the strike targeted four al-Shabaab militants planting roadside bombs and wounded two of them, and then local Puntland forces moved in and killed two al-Shabaab fighters.
Al-Shabaab is much more active in southern Somalia, and that’s where US airstrikes typically target them, but the group has maintained a presence in the Cal Madow mountains.
The AFP report said that the UAE drone had taken off from the Bosaso airport, where the UAE has a military base. The US has also operated at the base and recently signed an agreement with the Puntland government to expand its military presence in the Gulf of Aden port city, signaling more US escalations in Somalia, though the base could also be used as a launchpad for operations in Yemen.
The UAE’s base in Bosaso has been a source of major controversy, as an investigation by Middle East Eye found that the facility was being used as a key logistics hub for weapons shipments to Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which the US government has determined has committed genocide in Sudan.
The Mogadishu-based Somali Federal Government ordered the UAE to leave Bosaso, and there were reports earlier this year that said the UAE was pulling military equipment out of the base, but the drone strike on Wednesday suggests that Abu Dhabi’s military presence continues. The Puntland government, which controls Bosaso, withdrew from the federal system in 2024 over changes made to the constitution by Hassan Sheikh Mohamud and has recently clashed with federal forces.
While the US arms and trains Somali federal troops, it has strongly backed the Puntland government in its war against an ISIS affiliate in the region, which is an offshoot of al-Shabaab. The Trump administration has dramatically escalated airstrikes in Somalia, and the October 19 attack marked at least the 88th US airstrike in Somalia of 2026.
