US strikes in Somalia killed or wounded 216 civilians: report
A new investigation by Airwars and ARIJ estimates that at least 216 civilians were killed or wounded in US-led air operations in Somalia between 2007 and 2025. The report emphasizes that this figure is a minimum estimate based on documented incidents rather than a comprehensive total.
Why it matters
The report sheds light on the human cost of long-term military interventions and the challenges of tracking civilian casualties in conflict zones.
Washington (Somalia Today) — At least 216 civilians were killed or wounded in US air operations in Somalia between 2007 and May 2025, according to a new investigation based on casualty data compiled by the conflict-monitoring group Airwars.
The investigation , published by Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism (ARIJ), analysed 884 US and US-led air operations across Somalia, Syria, Iraq and Yemen.
Researchers identified a minimum of 3,336 civilians killed or wounded across the four countries. Somalia accounted for 216 casualties, compared with 1,336 in Syria, 991 in Yemen and 793 in Iraq.
ARIJ said the figures represented a minimum documented toll rather than the full number of civilians harmed by US military operations.
The researchers used the Airwars database, covering January 2007 to the end of May 2025, and took the lowest documented casualty figure for each incident.
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