US Africa Command said in a press release on Friday that its forces launched an airstrike in Somalia’s Puntland region on July 10 as the Trump administration continues to bomb the country at a record pace.
AFRICOM offered no details about the strike other than saying it targeted the local ISIS affiliate and was launched to the southeast of the port city of Bossaso. Since April, the command has stopped sharing estimates on casualties or assessments of potential civilian harm.
The US has been backing local Puntland security forces in their campaign against the ISIS affiliate in the Cal Miskaad mountains in Puntland’s Bari region. Puntland’s Counter-Terrorism Operations said in a post on X on July 10 that the US launched airstrikes that week against “fleeing ISIS militants” in the Cal Miskaad mountains.
Based on numbers provided by AFRICOM, the attack brings the total number of US airstrikes in Somalia this year to 49, putting the Trump administration on track to break the annual record of 63, which President Trump set in 2019 during his first term.
New America, an organization that tracks the US air war, has put the total number of strikes in Somalia so far this year at 50, including one that was reported on by Somali media but not claimed by AFRICOM. The US has also been supporting the Mogadishu-based Federal Government’s war against al-Shabaab in central and southern Somalia.