U.S. Marine MV-22 Osprey aircraft take off from Kismayo, Somalia, in July 2024. A U.S. airstrike on Dec. 31, 2024, killed 10 al-Shabab insurgents about 20 miles from the Kismayo base, U.S. Africa Command said Tuesday. (Kathleen LaCorte/U.S. Air National Guard)
STUTTGART, Germany — U.S. forces helped evacuate Somali troops from harm’s way during a recent operation against insurgents that resulted in the deaths of 10 militants from al-Shabab, U.S. Africa Command said Tuesday.
The operation, carried out on Dec. 31, comes on the heels of a separate AFRICOM airstrike that killed a top al-Shabab commander a week earlier.
The New Year’s Eve strike happened in a town called Beer Xaani, which is about 20 miles northwest of an operational base used by U.S. and Somali forces in Kismayo, according to an AFRICOM statement.
On Monday, AFRICOM confirmed the Dec. 24 death of Mohamed Mire, described as a top official in the al-Qaida-aligned militant group.
In the Dec. 31 airstrike, U.S. forces also rescued Somali counterparts who were attacked while fighting the terrorist group, the AFRICOM statement said without elaborating on the evacuation.
AFRICOM did not specify what units and assets were involved, citing operational security. The U.S. has several hundred troops in Somalia, where they are tasked with training and assisting local forces.
Al-Shabab has been waging a long-running armed insurgency against Somalia’s weak central government, whose military has been bolstered by U.S. troops.
Over the years, AFRICOM has carried out periodic airstrikes against militants, but the pace of those strikes has slowed. In 2020, AFRICOM conducted a record 63 strikes in the country, compared with roughly a dozen in 2024.
President Joe Biden in 2022 directed U.S. personnel back to Somalia on a continuous basis, reversing former President Donald Trump’s order in late 2020 to withdraw some 700 troops from the country.
Biden’s decision came in the wake of criticism from AFRICOM’s commander at the time, Gen. Stephen Townsend, who said the rotational approach that replaced the full-time presence in Somalia amounted to “commuting to work” and allowed insurgents to gain ground.
It’s unclear what Trump’s plans are for the U.S. mission in Somalia or whether he intends to pull forces out once again after returning to the White House later this month.
