Incident Code
Incident Date
Location
Geolocation
Geolocation
Airwars Assessment
(Previous Incident Code: SOM098)
On June 4th 2018, AFRICOM reported that it had “conducted an airstrike targeting al-Shabaab militants approximately 26 miles southwest of Bosasso, Somalia, on June 2”.
It added: “We currently assess no civilians were injured or killed in this airstrike.” However, AFRICOM claimed that the airstrike killed “twenty-seven (27) terrorists.”
As Voice of America noted, “Saturday’s airstrike came after al-Shabab extremists attacked a military base in Puntland, claiming to have killed five soldiers, wounding seven and destroying Somali military equipment.”
Garowe Online said the al Shabaab attack had been on a Puntland security force base near Balli Khadar in the Galgala hills – a possible location for the following US strike.
In a subsequent FOIA response obtained by journalist Joshua Eaton in May 2019, AFRICOM confirmed it had struck what it says were “Al-Shabaab Fighters”, in the vicinity of Puntland, Somalia.
Key Information
Geolocation Notes
Reports of the incident mention that the strike took place in the area 26 miles southwest of the city Bosaso (بوصاصو), for which the generic coordinates are: 11.000004, 48.919238. Garowe Online said the al Shabaab attack had been on a Puntland security force base near Balli Khadar in the Galgala mountains. It is possible that the strike, in response to the attack, took place in the vicinity of the base, in the Galgala hills. The area is indeed around 26 miles southwest of Bosaso. The coordinates for Balli Khadar are: 10.953175, 49.132731. The generic coordinates for the Galgala mountains are: 10.990969, 49.009422. Due to limited information and satellite imagery available to Airwars, we were unable to verify the location further.
Balli Khadar base and the village of Galgala in the Galgala mountains
Imagery: Google Earth