AFRICOM admits three casualties in Somalia airstrike

GOOBJOOG NEWS|STUTTGART: The U.S Africa Command (AFRICOM) has admitted three civilians were injured during one of its airstrikes in Somalia early this year.

In its quarterly assessment report, AFRICOM said Friday the three were injured in an airstrike on January 1 in Qunyo Barrow in the Lower Shabelle region.

“Jan. 2, 2021, U.S. Africa Command received one (1) report from an online media source claiming three (3) civilians were injured as a result of a U.S. airstrike in the vicinity of Qunyo Barrow, Somalia, on Jan. 1, 2021,” the report read in part. ‘After a thorough assessment of the information and circumstances following the Jan. 1, 2021, airstrike, U.S. Africa Command assessed that more likely than not, the airstrike inadvertently injured three (3) civilians.”

However, it rejected one other case, which claimed five civilians were killed, noting the case was a duplicate earlier disposed of and that the casualties were Al-Shabaab militants.

With every airstrike, we conduct a thorough pre-strike assessment to reduce the likelihood of civilian harm,” said U.S. Army Gen. Stephen Townsend, commander, U.S. Africa Command. “Unfortunately, our Jan. 1 airstrike, which was designed to protect re-positioning U.S. troops and precisely hit its intended target, likely also caused injuries to three civilians nearby.”

The report is the sixth since AFRICOM first began releasing reports in April 2020 following widespread complaints of civilian casualties.

Since the beginning of the year, the US has conducted about ten airstrikes on Al-Shabaab and ISIS targets in Somalia.