MOGADISHU (Somaliguardian) – Residents of a village near the town of Afgoye say a U.S.-trained Somali intelligence unit carried out an hours-long overnight artillery barrage that killed more than 30 civilians, wounded scores of others and leveled nearly every home in the community.
The shelling struck the village of Jamlul, about 40 kilometers west of Mogadishu, shortly after midnight Tuesday and continued until morning, according to residents who spoke with local media. Many said the attack began while families were asleep and that no fighting was taking place in the area at the time.
Witnesses said the artillery fire “flattened” the village, which had recently taken in hundreds of families displaced by worsening drought in Bay and Bakool regions. Much of rural Somalia has been hit by severe water shortages and the near-collapse of pastureland, forcing thousands of pastoralist families to flee.
The barrage was reportedly followed by the arrival of forces from the Alpha Group, a special-operations branch of Somalia’s National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA) that has received U.S. training. Residents say the unit detained a number of people and took them away without explanation. The whereabouts of those detained remained unclear Thursday.
Somali authorities, speaking through state-affiliated media, said the artillery strikes were part of a “special operation” against Al-Shabab militants. Officials also suggested there had been clashes in the area. But residents strongly rejected those claims, saying there were no militants present and no combat before the attack.
Local elders and survivors accused security forces of failing to evacuate wounded civilians or offer medical assistance. They said telecommunications in the village were cut during the bombardment, leaving injured residents unable to call for help. Some victims, they said, bled to death while waiting for transport to hospitals.
Medical workers in Afgoye said more than 100 people were injured, with some transferred to Mogadishu for treatment. On Wednesday night, NISA Director Mahad Salad was seen in a video visiting wounded civilians in hospital, but he did not offer a public explanation or apology.
Residents say this week’s strike was not an isolated incident. Several villagers told local reporters that security forces killed a group of civilians in a nearby settlement days earlier, an event they said went unreported.
The outskirts of Afgoye have experienced a series of deadly incidents in recent years involving Somali security forces and foreign airstrikes, including those carried out by Turkish and U.S. military assets supporting Somalia’s counterterrorism campaign.
On March 18, 2024, two Turkish airstrikes killed more than 23 civilians – among them 14 children and five women – according to an investigation by Amnesty International, which called for a war-crimes inquiry.
A separate strike in the Lower Juba town of Jamaame last month killed 12 civilians, including eight children, local residents said. It remains unclear who carried out that attack, though residents alleged a U.S. drone strike.
Air operations by Somalia’s international partners primarily the United States and Turkey – alongside ground offensives by Somali forces and African Union peacekeepers, have long drawn criticism from human rights organisations. Communities say civilians have borne the heaviest burden of the conflict, yet few incidents have been independently investigated, despite the high number of deaths and the lasting trauma.
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