Somali and U.S. forces carried out an airstrike that killed 12 Al-Shabaab militants during a raid on Adan Yabaal, a strategic town under assault by the jihadist group, Somalia’s government said Thursday.
Located 220 kilometres (140 miles) north of Mogadishu, Adan Yabaal was attacked by Al-Shabaab fighters early Wednesday. According to a military source, the militants used bomb-laden trucks to breach the town’s defences before engaging in combat with Somali troops stationed there.
The U.S. Africa Command and Somali armed forces responded with a coordinated airstrike aimed at disrupting the attack. “The targeted strike hit a site used by the militants as a gathering and hideout,” the Ministry of Information said in a statement on X. “Preliminary reports indicate that 12… operatives, including senior leaders, were eliminated.”
Al-Shabaab has intensified its campaign across Somalia, raising concerns of a resurgence after years of being pushed back by joint Somali and African Union operations. The group has recently carried out attacks in several regions, including a mortar assault near Mogadishu’s airport that disrupted international flights, and a failed bombing attempt targeting President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud’s convoy in March.
In the early hours of Thursday, Somali forces and their allies reportedly killed another 35 Al-Shabaab fighters near Baidoa, in the southwest, after the militants attempted to storm a military base there.
Adan Yabaal was retaken from Al-Shabaab in December 2022 during a significant government-led offensive. However, during Wednesday’s attack, local residents and the militant group itself claimed the town had fallen again, though this has not been independently confirmed.
President Mohamud had visited Adan Yabaal in recent weeks, where he met with military leaders to assess the ongoing fight against Al-Shabaab, which has been waging an insurgency in Somalia for 15 years.
Despite previous setbacks, the group remains a potent threat, having reclaimed strategic areas in Middle and Lower Shabelle and other coastal regions near the capital. The fortified Halane compound in Mogadishu—which houses the UN, diplomatic missions, and the African Union’s Support and Stabilisation Mission in Somalia (AUSSOM)—has also come under recent attack.
