S targets ISIS in Somalia with multiple airstrikes over four days
American forces bombed Islamic State militants for four days in a row in northern Somalia, in the latest wave of the expanding air war in the country.
On Saturday, U.S. Africa Command confirmed airstrikes against ISIS in the country on Christmas Eve and Christmas, marking four days of operations from Dec. 22-25. They happened while the U.S. launched Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles at ISIS fighters in Nigeria on Christmas day.
All of the airstrikes between Dec. 22-25 targeted militants in the Golis Mountain range, in locations roughly 90 kilometers southeast of the city of Bosaso in northern Somalia, AFRICOM said. No casualties were listed in any of the press releases on the strikes, and no other details were shared, citing operational security.
“AFRICOM, alongside the Federal Government of Somalia and Somali Armed Forces, continues to take action to degrade ISIS-Somalia’s ability to threaten the U.S. Homeland, our forces, and our citizens abroad,” each release said.
The Trump administration greatly expanded the war in Somalia this year, with more than 120 strikes, far above any past year by any prior administration (including records set during Trump’s first term in office). New America, a think tank that has been tracking American strikes in Somalia against ISIS and al-Shabaab, recorded 118 this year as of Dec. 15. According to AFRICOM’s own release, the United States conducted 10 more since, bringing it to 128. It is the highest number of strikes per year since the George W. Bush administration began operations in Somalia in 2003. Trump’s entire first term saw 219 strikes; the Biden administration carried out only 51.
Some of the strikes have involved major firepower, including a Feb. 1 attack where aircraft from the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier (deployed to fight Houthi forces in Yemen) use more than 120,000 pounds of munitions to kill 14 militants.
The strikes in Somalia come concurrent with the Trump administration’s high-profile Christmas day attack on ISIS fighters in Nigeria’s northwest. The operation involved Tomahawks fired from an American warship and hit multiple locations in Nigeria’s Sokoto state. AFRICOM reported that “multiple ISIS terrorists were killed in the ISIS camps,” although that has not been independently verified. Residents in the village of Jabo, where debris from one of the missiles hit, reported no casualties and said there was no ISIS activity in that area.
