(Previous Incident Code: SOM075)

AFRICOM reported on the same day that it had “conducted an airstrike in Somalia against an al-Shabaab camp on Tuesday, Nov. 21 at approximately 10:30 a.m. local Somalia time”.

It added that “the operation occurred 125 miles northwest of the capital, Mogadishu” though AFRICOM made no mention of civilian harm. However, it claimed that the attack had killed “more than 100 militants”. CNN said the attack was conducted by a manned aircraft, while Garowe said the attack was on “a mountainous settlement called Leb-Adde” and that ten munitions were used.

The Somali government said it had requested the strike. “Those militants were preparing explosives and attacks. Operations against al Shabaab have been stepped up,” Somali Information Minister Abdirahman Omar Osman told Reuters. “We have asked the US to help us from the air to make our readied ground offensive more successful.”

Somalia’s state news agency SONNA also reported the deaths of 100 fighters following an attack on al Shabaab bases by US planes and Somali commandos. It placed ththe event in the Bur Elay area of Bay region. Military officials also told VOA that the strike hit Somalia’s Bay region. “‘It’s obvious from what we were seeing that these were militants,’ AFRICOM spokesman Lieutenant Commander Anthony Falvo told VOA.”

An Al Shabaab spokesperson denied the attack to Reuters, claiming it was “just propaganda.”.

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 camp on this date, in the vicinity of Bur Elade, Somalia.