NAIROBI — For years, the U.S. military has denied that any of its airstrikes in Somalia against the extremist group al-Shabab have resulted in civilian casualties, but a new report released Tuesday by Amnesty International alleges that 14 civilians were killed in five airstrikes in 2017 and 2018.
The accuracy of the U.S. military’s drone strikes in Somalia has come under increased scrutiny since President Donald Trump relaxed rules of engagement there in March 2017. Since then, the number of strikes has dramatically increased.
U.S. forces have carried out 28 airstrikes in Somalia this year, on pace to triple the 47 acknowledged strikes it carried out in 2018. A large portion of the strikes are carried out in Somalia’s Lower Shabelle region, where Amnesty did its investigation, which included more than 150 interviews and analyses of satellite imagery and munition fragments.
In response to the report, U.S. Africa Command released its own assessments of the five highlighted strikes and maintained that they caused no civilian casualties, arguing that Amnesty’s capability to gather intelligence in a war zone couldn’t compare to the military’s. The report says the civilian casualties it documents resulted from strikes that “may amount to war crimes.”