US Africa Command has launched at least 68 airstrikes in Somalia this year, the command told Antiwar.com in an email on Tuesday, putting it on track to break the record for annual US airstrikes in the country that the Trump administration set last year at 124.
President Trump oversaw a dramatic escalation of US airstrikes in Somalia since returning to office after he loosened the rules of engagement by lifting restrictions on US drone strikes and raids carried out outside of officially declared combat zones.
According to New America, an organization that tracks the air war, the 124 airstrikes launched in 2025 were more than those conducted during the administrations of Joe Biden, Barack Obama, and George W. Bush combined.
After a seeming lull in US airstrikes in Somalia since early May, AFRICOM announced a series of strikes against al-Shabaab in southern Somalia in recent days. The US has also been bombing an ISIS affiliate in northeastern Somalia’s Puntland region, and AFRICOM told Antiwar.com that the latest airstrikes launched in that area were conducted in early May.
The situation on the ground in Somalia is difficult to ascertain for a variety of reasons, including the fact that AFRICOM no longer shares information about casualties or assessments on civilian harm. The US-backed Somali government also has a history of cracking down on journalists who cover the war critically, and al-Shabaab maintains restrictions on internet use in the areas under its control.
The Guardian recently published a detailed report about a US airstrike that killed 12 civilians, including eight children, in Jamaame, southern Somalia, in November 2025. When asked for comment, White House deputy press secretary Anna Kelly asked if the outlet would also focus on “fraud committed by Somalis in the United States?”
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.
