(Previous Incident Code: SOM063)

The US carried out an air strike on September 13th, killing six al Shabaab members, according to a press release from US Africa Command.

The strike took place at approximately 0215 local time (1115 GMT), hitting an area in southern Somalia about 260km south of the capital, AFRICOM said.

The original press release said three strikes took place. However, a spokesperson told the Bureau of Investigative Journalism that AFRICOM had later changed how it classified airstrikes in October and that the three attacks carried out in this operation were now seen as constituting a single strike operation.

Military Times noted that “U.S. officials overseeing the U.S. mission in Africa would not describe the air assets involved in these strikes. ‘We have a range of capabilities at various locations in the region that will allow us to carry out these airstrikes, including manned and unmanned platforms,’ said Robyn Mack, a spokesperson for AFRICOM.”

The attack was carried out under the parameters of authorities granted by President Trump in March. This gave US commanders greater freedom to launch strikes and raids in a geographically-defined area for at least 180 days.

In a Freedom of Information response obtained by journalist Joshua Eaton in May 2019, AFRICOM placed the date of this action on September 12th – and said that it had targeted al Shabaab fighters in the vicinity of Kunyo Barrow.