U.S. Airstrikes in Somalia Surge to Record 109 After New Operations in Puntland and Jubaland.
U.S. military activity in Somalia has reached unprecedented levels, with seven new airstrikes conducted in late November and early December pushing the annual total to at least 109 strikes—the highest ever recorded in the country’s history.
The latest operations targeted ISIS-linked militants entrenched in the remote mountains of Puntland and an al-Shabaab position in Jubaland, underscoring Washington’s intensifying counterterrorism focus across Somalia’s fractured north and south.
According to U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM), the first series of strikes hit militant hideouts on Nov. 26, 27 and 28 in a rugged zone approximately 37 miles southeast of Bosaso.
Additional strikes followed on Dec. 1, 2 and 3 in the same mountainous region, an area long known for its complex cave networks that ISIS fighters have used to evade Somali and U.S.-backed security forces.
A separate Dec. 3 strike targeted an al-Shabaab site near Kobon in southern Jubaland. AFRICOM released no casualty figures and provided no information on aircraft platforms or weapons employed.
The escalation comes shortly after AFRICOM commander Gen. Dagvin Anderson visited Puntland, pressuring regional authorities to widen their campaign against ISIS elements operating outside Mogadishu’s political reach.
Unlike other Somali regions, Puntland maintains semi-autonomous structures and has been one of the main local partners for U.S. counterterror missions—cooperation strengthened precisely because it bypasses the federal government.
This year’s total far exceeds earlier peaks. Under President Donald Trump, AFRICOM conducted 63 airstrikes in 2019 and 219 across his first four-year term. President Joe Biden approved 51 strikes over four years, according to the New America Foundation.
President Barack Obama authorized 48 over eight years. The 2024 tally therefore marks a dramatic acceleration, reflecting a renewed U.S. willingness to strike militant networks aggressively ahead of their anticipated expansion into coastal and urban zones.
Washington’s involvement in Somalia stretches back decades, but its modern counterterror strategy crystallized after the 2006 U.S.-backed Ethiopian intervention that toppled the Islamic Courts Union. Al-Shabaab emerged from that upheaval, launching its first major suicide attack the same year.
Somalia’s ISIS branch formed later, in 2015, after a faction of al-Shabaab broke away and pledged loyalty to the Islamic State—anchoring itself in Puntland’s mountains, where Somalia’s fragmented governance has enabled militant entrenchment.
The surge in U.S. strikes now signals a deeper strategic concern: both Islamic State and al-Shabaab elements are adapting, exploiting ungoverned spaces while Mogadishu remains engulfed in internal political turmoil.
For Washington, the Red Sea corridor’s volatility makes Somalia’s militant networks more than a local threat—they are a regional accelerant at a time when global trade routes face cascading instability.
