(Previous Incident Code: SOM061)

On September 5th 2017, AFRICOM reported that it had conducted a precision airstrike in “central Somalia” against al-Shabaab militants that same day at approximately 9:50am local Somalia time. The release made no mention of civilian harm.

However, AFRICOM asserted that the strike had killed “three (3) terrorists”.

The action, it said, had hit in the Bay region of Somalia, about 75 kilometers west of the capital. It was carried out in support of African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) and Somali National Army (SNA) forces operating in the area.

AP also reported the following: “‘We assess no civilians were anywhere near the site,” a spokesman for the U.S. Africa Command, Lt. Cmdr. Anthony Falvo, told The Associated Press. He said he did not have the identities of the extremists killed. The al-Shabab members were operating ‘in close proximity to’ Somali army forces and African Union forces in the area ‘and were deemed as a credible threat,’ Falvo said.”

VOA placed the strike “near the village of Dodale in the Bay region, on an unspecified target.”

In a subsequent FOIA response obtained by journalist Joshua Eaton in May 2019, AFRICOM said it had struck what it says was “an al-Shabaab Technical Vehicle”, in the vicinity of Tortoroow.