US Africa Command said in a press release on Monday that its forces launched more airstrikes in Somalia as the Trump administration continues a record-shattering bombing campaign in the country.
The command said that the strikes were launched on September 24 and targeted al-Shabaab in the vicinity of Qumbi, a village about 55 miles northwest of the southern port city of Kismayo. AFRICOM offered no other details about the attack as it stopped sharing casualty estimates and assessments on potential civilian harm last year.
There were no statements from the US-backed Somali government about operations that day, but Somali media reported that there have been ongoing battles around Qumbi between US-backed Somali forces and al-Shabaab that have been supported by airstrikes launched by “international partners.” The September 24 attacks marked at least the third time the US has bombed the vicinity of Qumbi this month.
The command described the September 24 attacks in the plural, suggesting it launched at least two strikes. Based on Antiwar.com’s tally of AFRICOM statements and announcements, the two strikes bring the number of US airstrikes in Somalia this year to at least 85.
The number reflects more airstrikes than the US ever launched in Somalia 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. Despite the record number of strikes, the US war in Somalia receives virtually no US media coverage.
The US has also been conducting a bombing campaign against an ISIS affiliate in Somalia’s northeastern Puntland region and is planning to establish a military base in Bosaso, a port city in Puntland on the Gulf of Aden.
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 emerged as 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.
