Geolocation
Airwars assessment
A suspected US drone carried out double airstrikes in Somalia’s Middle Juba region, killing 20 al Shabaab fighters in total, Mareeg Media reported.
According to Mareeg: “A suspected US drone has carried out double air strikes targeting towns held by al Qaeda linked Al Shabaab in south of Somalia. The strikes were conducted in Bu’ale and Jilib towns, major al Shabaab strongholds in south of Somalia’s Middle Jubba region.
“A Somali military official, who asked to be unnamed, says 20 Al Shabaab militants, including senior commanders had been killed in the latest air raids. It is unclear who carried out the bombing. There was no immediate comment from Al Shabaab over the claims.”
Mareeg did not give a date or time of day for this strike, which is therefore registered on the day that it was initially reported.
According to Algaalgagud, “News from Jilib and Bu’ale in Middle Juba states that they have suffered several bombings by unknown fighter jets. These targeted an al Shabaab base at Buale and other facilities. The base is said to have been damaged or destroyed.”
Asked whether it had been responsible for this event, in February 2020 a senior AFRICOM official told Airwars that this was not the case. However, this may not preclude actions by the CIA which conducts its own undeclared strikes in Somalia.
The local time of the incident is unknown.
Geolocation notes
Reports of the incident mention that a double airstrike targeted the towns Jilib and Bu’aale. The coordinates for the town Bu’aale are: 1.251778, 42.575959. Due to limited information and satellite imagery available to Airwars, we were unable to verify the location further.