Airwars assessment
According to Voice of America correspondent Harun Maruf, two airstrikes by an unknown party struck al Shabaab targets in southern Somalia.
According to Maruf’s initial tweet, “A strike in Jamame area reportedly hit a graduation ceremony of new recruits for Jaysh Ayman, the Al-Shabaab unit that operates in Kenya.” The other strike allegedly targeted Buaale.
Maruf later updated his claim: “Reports from southern Somalia suggest that last night’s airstrike in Jamame area targeted Abdira’uf Yusuf aka “Ayman” who heads the East African dominated Al-Shabaab force that was named after him. The strike hit during a graduation ceremony of Jaysh Ayman recruits.”
No additional public details are presently known about this event.
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 incident occured during the night.
Summary
Sources (2) [ collapse]
Media
from sources (2) [ collapse]
Geolocation notes
Reports of the incident mention that the strike targeted a graduation ceremony of new recruits for Jaysh Ayman in the town of Jamaame. The coordinates for the town Jamaame are: 0.06978, 42.748066. Due to limited information and satellite imagery available to Airwars, we were unable to verify the location further.