The US has launched at least two more airstrikes in Somalia in recent days, according to press releases from US Africa Command, as the Trump administration continues bombing the country at a record pace, an air campaign that receives virtually no US media coverage.
AFRICOM said one strike launched on January 11 targeted the ISIS affiliate in Somalia’s northeastern Puntland region about 16 miles southeast of the Gulf of Aden port city of Bosaso. It offered no other information about the attack, and there have been no statements from US-backed Puntland forces about the bombing.
AFRICOM also announced an unspecified number of airstrikes targeting al-Shabaab on January 12 in southern Somalia. The command said the attack was conducted in the vicinity of Godane, Somalia, about 37 miles northeast of Mogadishu.
Somalia’s Defense Ministry announced an “air operation” conducted with “international partners” in the same area that it claimed killed 17 al-Shabaab militants. “In addition, weapons and vehicles used by the group to carry out their criminal activities were destroyed,” the ministry claimed.
Several attacks launched by the US and the US-backed Federal Government last year resulted in civilian casualties. It’s difficult to know the situation on the ground due to the lack of US media coverage, the US-backed government’s crackdown on journalists who report critically on Somalia’s security forces, and al-Shabaab’s restrictions on internet use in the areas it controls.
Since early last year, AFRICOM stopped releasing casualty estimates and assessments on potential civilian harm. “Specific details about units and assets will not be released to ensure continued operations security,” the command said in both press releases.
The latest US bombings in Somalia bring the total number of US airstrikes in the country this year to at least 10, the same number AFRICOM launched in all of 2024. The command told Antiwar.com in an email over the weekend that it launched 124 airstrikes in Somalia in 2025, nearly double the previous annual record of US bombings in the country, which President set at 63 during his first term in 2019.
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