U.S. airstrikes in Somalia hit record 109 after Puntland State, Jubaland strikes

Mogadishu — U.S. Africa Command carried out seven new airstrikes in Somalia between Nov. 26 and Dec. 3, pushing this year’s total to at least 109 strikes — a record level of U.S. military activity in the country. The latest operations targeted ISIS-linked militants inPuntland Stateand an al-Shabaab site in southern Jubaland, AFRICOM said.

The command described a rapid sequence of strikes focused on a remote mountain zone southeast of Bosaso, a longtime militant hideout, and a separate strike near the Kenyan border. It did not release casualty figures, identify specific targets or disclose the aircraft and munitions used.

• Nov. 26–28: Three strikes in a remote mountain area about 37 miles (60 kilometers) southeast of Bosaso, in Puntland State.
• Dec. 1–3: Three additional strikes in the same Bosaso-area mountains.
• Dec. 3: A separate strike on an al-Shabaab position near Kobon in Jubaland.

The escalation comes shortly after AFRICOM commander Gen. Dagvin Anderson visited Puntland State and urged regional authorities to broaden their campaign against ISIS elements operating from cave networks. Puntland State’s security forces have long received U.S. support and coordinate directly with international partners; the semi-autonomous region does not fall under the full authority of Somalia’s federal government in Mogadishu.

This year’s strike pace surpasses previous highs set under President Donald Trump, when the U.S. military conducted 63 airstrikes in 2019 and 219 across his first term. By comparison, research from the U.S.-based New America Foundation attributes 51 strikes to President Joe Biden over four years and 48 to President Barack Obama over eight years. The new total of at least 109 underscores Washington’s renewed reliance on airpower as Somali and regional forces pressure insurgent groups across multiple fronts.

U.S. involvement in Somalia has waxed and waned for decades, but the current counterterrorism focus deepened after Ethiopia’s 2006 invasion — supported by the George W. Bush administration — toppled the Islamic Courts Union in Mogadishu. Al-Shabaab emerged from the movement’s hard-line wing and conducted its first major attack that year with a suicide bombing targeting Ethiopian troops. The group has since entrenched itself across swaths of southern and central Somalia while maintaining a lethal network of guerrilla cells in urban areas.

Somalia’s ISIS affiliate formed later, when a faction broke away from al-Shabaab and pledged allegiance to ISIS in 2015. It established footholds in Puntland State’s rugged Bari region, whose caves and canyons have helped fighters evade capture and complicate ground operations by Somali units and their foreign backers.

AFRICOM did not provide battle damage assessments for the latest strikes, and independent verification is often difficult in the country’s remote conflict zones. The command has faced sustained scrutiny from rights groups over transparency and civilian harm reporting in Somalia and elsewhere; in recent years, it has instituted additional review mechanisms and occasionally acknowledged civilian casualties. No such reports accompanied the most recent announcements.

The concentration of strikes in the Bosaso-area mountains suggests continued U.S. emphasis on degrading ISIS cells that have exploited the natural terrain, smuggling routes and periodic friction between local authorities and federal institutions. The separate hit near Kobon indicates pressure is also being maintained on al-Shabaab’s southern strongholds, even as Somali forces pursue offensives inland with support from regional partners.

What remains unclear is whether the latest wave targeted mid- or senior-level operatives, or sought primarily to disrupt logistics and safe havens ahead of anticipated ground operations. For now, AFRICOM says the strikes are part of ongoing efforts to “degrade terrorist capabilities” and support Somalia’s security forces as they confront both al-Shabaab and ISIS affiliates.

The surge to at least 109 strikes this year points to a widening air campaign alongside local and regional operations — and signals that, nearly two decades after the start of the current phase of the conflict, the fight against Somalia’s insurgent groups remains a core U.S. counterterrorism priority in the Horn of Africa.

By Ali Musa

Axadle Times international–Monitoring.