Civilian Casualties

Civilian Casualties

Incident Code

USSOM187

Incident date

February 2, 2019

Location

Forsooley, Lower Shabelle, Somalia

Geolocation

2.08436, 44.54515 Note: The accuracy of this location is to Village level. Continue to map

Airwars assessment

A reported tweet from Somalia’s National Intelligence and Security Agency – apparently since deleted – referred to a joint raid on February 2nd by Somali and US forces which was said to have killed 40 al Shabaab fighters.

Goobjoog News, which picked up on the original tweet, said that “The National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA) said in a tweet Tuesday the airstrike in Farsooley in Lower Shabelle region neutralized 40 militants following an earlier raid by NISA forces. NISA said its forces had, prior to the strike raided two areas where the militants had been collecting taxes from locals. The forces seized weapons and destroyed structures used by the militants, the statement added.

“It was not immediately clear if the strike was different from the one US Africa Command (AFRICOM) reported on the same day. AFRICOM said February 2nd it carried out an airstrike in Gandarshe in Lower Shabelle region killing 13 Al-Shabaab militants.”

While the original NISA reference appears to have been deleted, a surviving Tweet [in Somali] obliquely references an operation which had followed on from an action that “killed 40 AS [Al Shabaab] members.”

It is also possible that any airstrike was a Kenyan military action.

Given the distance from Farsooley to Gandarshe (scene of a declared US military strike on the same date) Airwars is treating these as separate events.

Asked whether it had been responsible for this event, in February 2020 a senior AFRICOM official told Airwars that this was not the case. However, this may not preclude actions by the CIA which conducts its own undeclared strikes in Somalia.

The local time of the incident is unknown.

Geolocation notes

Reports of the incident mention that the strike targeted two trucks in or near the village Forsooley in the Lower Shabelle region. Due to limited information and satellite imagery available to Airwars, we were unable to verify the precise location of the strike. The coordinates for the village Forsooley are: 2.08436, 44.54515.

Summary

  • Strike status
    Contested strike
  • Strike type
    Counter-Terrorism Action (Ground)
  • Civilian harm reported
    No
  • Civilians reported killed
    Unknown
  • Causes of injury / death
    Heavy weapons and explosive munitions, Small arms and light weapons
  • Suspected belligerents
    US Forces, Kenyan Military Forces
  • Known belligerent
    Somali Military Forces
  • Suspected target
    Al-Shabaab
  • Belligerents reported killed
    40

Sources (3) [ collapse]

Media
from sources (1) [ collapse]

US Forces Assessment:

  • Suspected belligerent
    US Forces
  • US Forces position on incident
    Not yet assessed

Somali Military Forces Assessment:

  • Known belligerent
    Somali Military Forces
  • Somali Military Forces position on incident
    Not yet assessed

Kenyan Military Forces Assessment:

  • Suspected belligerent
    Kenyan Military Forces
  • Kenyan Military Forces position on incident
    Not yet assessed

Summary

  • Strike status
    Contested strike
  • Strike type
    Counter-Terrorism Action (Ground)
  • Civilian harm reported
    No
  • Civilians reported killed
    Unknown
  • Causes of injury / death
    Heavy weapons and explosive munitions, Small arms and light weapons
  • Suspected belligerents
    US Forces, Kenyan Military Forces
  • Known belligerent
    Somali Military Forces
  • Suspected target
    Al-Shabaab
  • Belligerents reported killed
    40

Sources (3) [ collapse]