On November 17th, US Africa Command sent the Bureau of Investigative Journalism a list of previously unreported strikes, which included this one. No casualties were reported.

An AFRICOM spokesperson explained that their goal “is to be as transparent as possible while taking into account operational security, force protection and diplomatic sensitivities.” It therefore did not proactively release information about all of its strikes. It was limited to confirming or denying US operations took place when asked directly for those strikes that were not cleared to be reported in press releases.

The spokesperson would not say specifically where the attacks hit, telling the Bureau the best they could say was all the unreported strikes were conducted in southern Somalia, “for operational security reasons”.

However in December 2018, AFRICOM informed a US investigative journalist that this event “was in the vicinity of Tortoroow.”

At the time, Xinhua news agency had reported that “Somalia National Army (SNA)-backed by the African Union peacekeeping mission (AMISOM) on Friday destroyed an Al-Shabaab compound in southern Somalia.

“Somali National Army forces conducted an operation today which resulted in the destruction of a known Al-Shabaab compound around Tortoroow,” said AMISOM. The AU mission said the Somali forces were able to successfully reduce the ability of the terrorists to conduct senseless acts of violence against the people.”

The local time of the incident is unknown.

A US airstrike in the Lower Shabelle region targeting al Shabaab insurgents killed one member of the terror group, according to AFRICOM. The victim may have been the leader of the group’s intelligence wing, Andullahi Haji Daud. There are currently no known associated reports of civilian harm.

The strike hit in the south of the country and was first reported on the Twitter account  HarunMaruf late on July 2nd.

AFRICOM confirmed it carried out the attack on July 3rd, telling the Bureau of Investigative Journalism via email: “On July 2, at approximately 0730 Eastern Daylight Time [1430 Somalia time], US forces conducted a kinetic strike operation against al Shabaab, an al Qaeda associated terrorist group.”

There was no immediate word on casualties – including civilian harm – from AFRICOM, which said: “We are currently assessing the results of the operation, and will provide additional information as appropriate.”

However anonymous US defence sources told CNN that Ahmed Osoble was believed to have been killed. Osoble was described as a “regional commander” who was responsible for gathering intelligence on US forces in Somalia.

Possible airstrike has been reported on suspected Shabab militants in Kunyo Barrow town late Sunday, a source says vehicles were targeted.

— Harun Maruf (@HarunMaruf) July 2, 2017

On July 20th,  Africom told the Bureau of Investigative Journalism it had “assessed the results of the July 2 strike and determined one al Shabaab terrorist was killed.”

Somali intelligence officials told local media that US drones had targeted an al Shabaab convoy travelling between Kunya Barow and Barawe on the night of July 2nd. There were five al Shabaab commanders in the convoy, according to the unnamed Somali official. Among them was Andullahi Haji Daud, commander of al Shabaab’s Amniyat – its intelligence wing.

In a subsequent FOIA response obtained by journalist Joshua Eaton in May 2019, AFRICOM confirmed it had struck what it says was “an al-Shabaab named objective”, in the vicinity of Kunyo Barrow, Somalia on July 2nd.

The incident occured at 14:30:00 local time.