The US began the New Year with three straight days of airstrikes in Somalia, according to a press release from US Africa Command, as the Trump administration appears poised to continue its record-shattering bombing campaign in the country throughout 2026.
AFRICOM said in a press release on Monday that its forces launched airstrikes against the ISIS affiliate in Somalia’s northeastern Puntland region on January 1, January 2, and January 3. It’s unclear how many strikes were conducted each day, but the attacks bring the total for US airstrikes in Somalia this year to a bare minimum of three.
AFRICOM said the strikes were launched about 43 miles to the southeast of the Gulf of Aden port city of Bossasso and offered no other details about the attacks as it stopped sharing casualty estimates and assessments on potential civilian harm early last year. “Specific detail about units and assets will not be released to ensure continued operations security,” the command said.
The Puntland Counter-Terrorism Operations has not released a statement on its operations in recent days. The US-backed force occasionally details its operations or releases images of the bodies of dead people they claim are ISIS fighters they killed.
The Puntland forces are under the control of the local Puntland government, which withdrew from the federal system in 2024. The US also continues to back the Mogadishu-based Federal Government by launching airstrikes against al-Shabaab in southern Somalia. The most recent confirmed US strike targeting al-Shabaab was conducted on December 29, though according to Somali media, US forces took part in a helicopter raid in southern Somalia on Sunday.
According to Antiwar.com’s count, the US launched at least 128 airstrikes in Somalia in 2025, more than double the previous annual record of 63, which President Trump set in his first term in 2019. According to New America, an organization that tracks the air war, the airstrikes launched in 2025 are more than were conducted in Somalia during the administrations of Joe Biden, Barack Obama, and George W. Bush combined. Despite the unprecedented bombing campaign, the US air war in Somalia receives virtually no media coverage in the US.