US Africa Command (AFRICOM) announced on Tuesday that its forces launched two more airstrikes in Somalia as the Trump administration continues a record-shattering bombing campaign in the country, which receives virtually no media coverage in the US.
AFRICOM said in one press release that it launched a strike on September 4 about 108 miles west of Mogadishu that targeted al-Shabaab. It offered no other details about the attack, but the US-backed Somali Defense Ministry announced a military operation in the same area that day, which it claimed killed 14 al-Shabaab fighters, including five senior leaders, though the death toll hasn’t been confirmed by other sources.
In a second press release, AFRICOM said it launched a strike on September 5 that also targeted al-Shabaab about 46 miles northwest of the southern port city of Kismayo. As usual, AFRICOM shared no other details, and Somali government forces made no announcements about operations that day. “Specific details about units and assets will not be released to ensure continued operations security,” AFRICOM said.
The US attacks have brought the total number of US airstrikes in Somalia this year to at least 80, according to the attacks that have been publicly claimed by AFRICOM. Drop Site News reported that the US also carried out a strike against ISIS fighters in Somalia’s northeastern Puntland region, but AFRICOM hasn’t taken credit for the attack, suggesting it’s not announcing each strike and that the true number of US airstrikes in the country is higher.
The September 4 airstrike against al-Shabaab was the first AFRICOM officially announced since August 7. But despite the apparent lull, the US has still launched more airstrikes in Somalia this year than in any year prior to 2025, when President Trump shattered the previous record for annual US strikes by launching 124. The previous record, which he set in 2019, was 63.
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.
