The first known US airstrikes in Somalia as part of the so-called War on Terror took place in 2007 under President George W. Bush. However it was not until the Obama administration took office in 2009 that a significant US drone and airstrike campaign began.

Since then, several hundred declared and alleged US actions have taken place in Somalia involving drones, AC-130 gunships, attack helicopters, naval bombardments and cruise missile strikes – which between them according to local communities have killed scores of civilians.

The primary target of US actions has been the terror group al Shabaab – although actions have also focused on Al Qaeda in East Africa, and more recently on so-called Islamic State. Attacks are conducted by both US Special Operations Command under AFRICOM, and by the CIA.

While AFRICOM now declares almost all military airstrikes in Somalia it rarely reports ground actions, while the CIA neither confirms nor denies its own attacks. While earlier US strikes were focused around Mogadishu and in the country’s south, actions have now been reported in almost all parts of the fragile nation.

With new security partnerships in place with the Somali government with actors such as Turkey, attribution to specific incidents to any one party is increasingly challenging. In August 2024, Airwars added a new belligerent category: ‘International Forces (Unknown)’ to account for such references in the information around each strike.

Much of the information on US strikes in Somalia prior to 2019 was originally gathered over a nine year period by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism.