(Previous Incident Code: SOM100C)

An airstrike near the village of Jawaari was variously blamed on US and Kenyan forces.

Mareeg, a Somali news outlet, reported a strike by unidentified jets which it said had potentially killed eight members of al Shabaab. The terror group itself reportedly denied that any of its fighters were killed.

The source of Mareeg’s information was a tweet from Harun Maruf, a journalist with VOA. Maruf said the strike hit near Jawaari village in Somalia’s Middle Jubba region during the night of July 10th-11th.

While Mareeg said the jets were unidentified, Maruf initially said it was a suspected US strike. US Africa Command nevertheless reportedly told Mareeg no strikes have been carried out in Somalia since early June. The reporter later noted that “According to Pro-Al-Shabab media, Kenya military jets carried out the strikes that took place near Jawaari village.”

Intelligence Briefs also reported that the Kenyan Air Force had conducted its first long range airstrike on the town: “The Kenya Air Force (KAF), conducted a long range airstrike that killed 13 Al-Shabaab militants in Jawaari village, Middle Jubba region on July 10. This is the 1st indicator that the Kenya Defense Forces (KDF) are at advanced stages of conducting operations to strike and destroy Jiliib, the headquarters of the terror group. The terrorists operating base was completely decimated.

The airstrike targeted the Al-Qaeda branch in Somalia, Harakat Al-Shabaab Mujahideen Movement, a rag tag Islamist terror group’s intelligence and militant operations coordination operations base situated a brief distance outside Jawaari.”