Geolocation
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.”
The US military conducted an airstrike Tuesday near Jamecco, Somalia, according to @USAfricaCommand. 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
— Ryan Browne (@rabrowne75) March 14, 2018
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.
Summary
Sources (2) [ collapse]
Media
from sources (1) [ collapse]
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.
US Forces Assessment:
Original strike reports
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.”