Civilian Casualties

Civilian Casualties

Incident Code

USSOM121

Incident date

March 13, 2018

Location

Vicinity of Jamecco and Singulle, Middle Shabelle, Somalia

Geolocation

3.05, 45.48056 Note: The accuracy of this location is to Village level. Continue to map

Airwars assessment

A US airstrike killed 12 al Shabaab militants and wounded another 15 members as Jamecco, Middle Shabelle was struck, AFRICOM reported.

The US carried had carried out ten strikes since the start of the year, a US Africa Command spokesperson confirmed to the Bureau of Investigative Journalism (BIJ) at the start of April, which had recorded only six strikes based on press releases from the Command.

The spokesperson provided details on the strikes which BIJ had not recorded. One of these took place on March 13th, and targeted al Shabaab fighters in the vicinity of Jamecco. “We assess at this time that 12 terrorists were killed in this strike and that 15 were wounded,” the spokesperson said. As of now, there are no reports of civilian harm.

CNN did however report the event at the time, with defense correspondent Ryan Browne noting that “A US official tells CNN that over 20 al-Shabaab fighters were targeted, potentially making Tuesday’s strike one of the bigger strikes conducted by US forces in Somalia.”

https://twitter.com/rabrowne75/status/973953685385629700

In a subsequent FOIA response obtained by journalist Joshua Eaton in May 2019, AFRICOM  confirmed it had struck on this date what it says were “al-Shabaab Fighters”, in the vicinity of Singulle, Somalia.

The local time of the incident is unknown.

Geolocation notes

Reports of the incident mention that the strike took place in the vicinity of the village Jamecco for which the coordinates are: 3.05, 45.48056. Due to limited information and satellite imagery available to Airwars, we were unable to verify the location further.

Summary

  • Strike status
    Declared strike
  • Strike type
    Airstrike
  • Civilian harm reported
    No
  • Civilians reported killed
    0
  • Cause of injury / death
    Heavy weapons and explosive munitions
  • Known belligerent
    US Forces
  • Known target
    Al-Shabaab
  • Belligerents reported killed
    12
  • Belligerents reported injured
    15

Media
from sources (1) [ collapse]

US Forces Assessment:

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

Original strike reports

US Forces

Via email from Africom to BIJ, April 4th, 2018:

“U.S. forces conducted an airstrike on March 13 targeting al-Shabaab fighters in the vicinity of Jamecco, Somalia. We assess at this time that 12 terrorists were killed in this strike and that 15 were wounded.”

Summary

  • Strike status
    Declared strike
  • Strike type
    Airstrike
  • Civilian harm reported
    No
  • Civilians reported killed
    0
  • Cause of injury / death
    Heavy weapons and explosive munitions
  • Known belligerent
    US Forces
  • Known target
    Al-Shabaab
  • Belligerents reported killed
    12
  • Belligerents reported injured
    15