US Africa Command announced on Friday that its forces launched an airstrike in Somalia on February 13 targeting the ISIS affiliate in the northeastern Puntland region, marking at least the 31st US airstrike in the country this year.
AFRICOM offered no details on the strike other than saying it was launched about 30 miles southeast of the Gulf of Aden port city of Bosaso in a remote mountain region where the US has been backing local Puntland forces against ISIS fighters based in caves.
“Specific details about units and assets will not be released to ensure continued operations security,” the command said. AFRICOM stopped sharing casualty estimates and assessments on potential civilian harm for its Somalia airstrikes back in the first half of 2025 when it dramatically escalated the US air war.
Other recent US airstrikes in Somalia targeted al-Shabaab in the south, where the militant group and US-backed Federal Government forces have been engaged in heavy clashes. The US has been fighting against al-Shabaab since it first emerged following a US-backed Ethiopian invasion of Somalia in 2006, and the ISIS affiliate got its start in 2015 as an offshoot of al-Shabaab.
Despite the frequent US airstrikes in Somalia, the air war recieves virtually no media coverage in the US. President Trump oversaw 124 airstrikes in Somalia in 2025, breaking the previous annual record of 63, which he set during his first term in 2019. This year, the US is on track to break the 2025 record if it maintains the current pace, though strikes appear to have slowed since January, when the US launched 26 airstrikes in a single month.
