Deadly US Airstrike in Somalia Killed 12 Civilians, Including 8 Children, Guardian Finds

A town erased from the sky

On the morning of November 15, 2025, a series of explosions ripped through Jamaame, a small town in southern Somalia. At least 12 civilians died — eight of them children, including a 10-month-old infant and a group of brothers aged between four and ten — in what a Guardian investigation published this week identified as a U.S. military drone strike.theguardian Among the dead was a heavily pregnant woman and an imam revered in the community.theguardian The U.S. has never acknowledged a single civilian death.theguardian

The Guardian's reconstruction, built on photographs, medical X-rays, video footage, and witness testimony, describes at least 15 explosions across a residential neighbourhood, a Qur'anic school, and surrounding homes.theguardian Witnesses said the aircraft — most likely MQ-9 Reaper drones armed with Hellfire missiles — flew low enough to be heard clearly from the street.theguardian AFRICOM confirmed it conducted strikes in the area that day, saying it acted to "degrade al-Shabaab's ability to threaten the US homeland," yet every resident interviewed by the Guardian said the militant group had no presence in the town.theguardian

Safeguards dismantled, strikes multiplied

The attack came nine months after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth signed a directive revoking the Biden-era requirement for White House approval before drone strikes in Somalia, delegating that authority to AFRICOM generals.theguardian Simultaneously, the Pentagon gutted roughly 90% of its Civilian Harm Mitigation and Response programme — a 200-person mission to map civilian environments and investigate deaths — dismantling what former officials describe as the military's only systematic check on noncombatant casualties.propublica

The numbers reflect the policy shift. Conflict monitor ACLED recorded 123 U.S. airstrikes in Somalia in 2025, more than six times the previous year and double the prior record set in 2019.theguardian By April 2026, another 49 had been documented, nearly one every two days.theguardian AFRICOM also suspended the public release of casualty figures — a pause framed as "temporary" — leaving families and researchers with no official accounting.semafor

No investigation, no compensation

The Jamaame killings are the deadliest single incident of U.S. civilian casualties in Somalia since the 1993 Black Hawk Down operation.theguardian Six months on, no investigation has been announced, no family has been contacted by U.S. or Somali officials, and no compensation has been paid — despite Washington maintaining a $3 million annual budget for civilian death claims in Somalia.theguardian

The White House, when approached by the Guardian, asked whether the outlet would also report on "fraud committed by Somalis in the United States."theguardian Analysts warn the campaign is generating blowback alongside casualties. David Sterman of the New America think tank told the Guardian that U.S. operations "are not particularly effective" against al-Shabaab, whose forces have advanced to within 20 miles of Mogadishu.theguardian A former senior counterterrorism official told ProPublica the approach amounts to "just killing people and making more enemies."propublica