A source affiliated with al-Shabaab reported that five civilian farmers were killed by a “US and Somali special forces” operation in Lower Shabelle on March 10th while US Africa Command (AFRICOM) announced that they had killed three al-Shabaab militants in airstrikes “in the vicinity of Ugunji.”

AFRICOM declared their involvement in the strike on March 12th: “At the request of the Federal Government of Somalia, U.S. Africa Command conducted a collective self-defense airstrike against the al-Shabaab terrorist group on Mar. 10. The collective self-defense airstrike occurred in a remote area in the vicinity of Ugunji approximately 71 km southwest of Mogadishu. The initial post-strike assessment indicates that the U.S. airstrike killed three al-Shabaab terrorists and that no civilians were harmed.”

The Somali Guardian quoted “al-Shabaab-affiliated media” which allegedly “released images purporting to show 5 farmers allegedly killed by US and Somali special forces during an overnight operation in the Lower Shabelle region.” @Mogadishu_news provided similar information that it also credited to al-Shabaab, stating that “it ambushed a joint US-Somali convoy outside Janale town, lower Shabelle region, last night. The group also reports US and Somali special forces killed 5 farmers in Ugunji, near Janale.” @Mogadishu_news also published an image of a burnt up truck and the bodies of five deceased men. Airwars was not able to find the original al-Shabaab-affiliated source and as there were no additional sources corroborating this information, has graded this as a “weak” civilian harm status.