(Previous Incident Code: SOM101C1)

Unknown aircraft were reported to have struck the vicinity of Qalimow village about 60km north of Mogadishu on the night of July 24th-25th. Villagers told local media that several missiles had targeted Al-Shabab vehicles.

The attack – which almost all sources said was by drone – followed the recent recapture of Qalimow from Somalia forces.

In a report for The Nation published in February 2019, investigative reporter Amanda Sperber described the event as a possible US airstrike.

As she noted, “a document leaked to me by an international human-rights organization indicated an attack on July 25 in Qalimow, a village to the north of Mogadishu and about 95 miles from Ali’s home. I approached AFRICOM and asked if any strikes had occurred between July 22 and 27. Applying RTQ, a spokesperson acknowledged a strike on July 23 but would not specify the location. After weeks of pressing, AFRICOM said the strike happened 30 miles north of Kismayo, Somalia’s southern port city, which is hundreds of miles from both Qalimow and Marka.

This information only makes the situation more puzzling: When asked to avow a strike that a major international organization noted on July 25, AFRICOM admitted a strike in an entirely different location on July 23, and neither of these strikes match Ali’s recollections. In other words, there may have been three different strikes—one acknowledged by AFRICOM, one noted by the international organization, and one recalled by Ali—all around the same time, none of which were previously made public, and only one of which came to light via RTQ.”

Local media also reported this event – placing it however late on July 24th.