Geolocation
Airwars assessment
One senior al-Shabaab militant was injured by declared US AFRICOM airstrikes on Jilib, Somalia on May 20, 2023.
Somali National News Agency’s Twitter account @SONNALIVE first announced that “In a joint operation with international allies, the armed forces launched an airstrike on #Jilib city, the headquarters of #AlShabab terrorists. The enemy suffered losses in terms of casualties and destroyed equipment.”
The next day, AFRICOM announced that “In coordination with the Federal Government of Somalia, AFRICOM conducted an airstrike against the al-Shabaab militant network in Somalia on May 20, 2023. The strike occurred in Jilib, Somalia. Following a comprehensive battle damage assessment USAFRICOM assesses that one al-Shabaab fighter was injured as a result of the operation. The command’s assessment is that no civilians were injured or killed.”
Former al-Shabaab official Omar Mohamed Abu Ayan told Voice of America that Al-Shabaab’s head of external operations Osman Mohamed Abdi, known as Moallim Osman, was the target of the operation and appears to have survived the strike with an injury.
Somalia’s Ministry of Information said in a statement that the target Moallim oversaw bringing foreign fighters to Somalia to join al-Shabaab. Another Somali official said that he was involved in planning the al-Shabaab attack in January 2016 against an African Union military base manned by Kenyan forces in El Adde, which is the hometown of Moallim, as well as supervising al-Shabaab attacks on Kenya and their incursion into Ethiopia in 2022.
Garowe Online reported on May 26th that according to multiple sources, Moallim was in “critical and unconscious” condition, had suffered “major injuries” and that his condition was “deteriorating on an hourly basis”.
@HarunMaruf gave context that the strike occurred while the Director of Somalia’s National Intelligence and Security Agency was visiting Washington and New York, meeting with the Pentagon, FBI and CIA Officials.
The local time of the incident is unknown.
Geolocation notes
Reports of the incident mention the city of Jilib, for which the generic coordinates are: 0.493790, 42.776410. Due to limited satellite imagery and information available to Airwars, we were unable to verify the location further.
Summary
Sources (12) [ collapse]
US Forces Assessment:
Original strike reports
In coordination with the Federal Government of Somalia, AFRICOM conducted an airstrike against the al-Shabaab militant network in Somalia on May 20, 2023.
The strike occurred in Jilib, Somalia.
*Following a comprehensive battle damage assessment USAFRICOM assesses that one al-Shabaab fighter was injured as a result of the operation. The command’s assessment is that no civilians were injured or killed.
U.S. Africa Command takes great measures to prevent civilian casualties. Protecting innocent civilians remains a vital part of the command’s operations to promote a more secure and stable Africa.