Questions Raised Over US Drone Strike That Killed Somali Elder Near Badhan

[Deeq A.]

Somali elder Omar Abdullahi Ibrahim was last week killed in US drone strike near Badhan.

Badhan (PP News Desk)  — The killing of a prominent Somali elder in a United States drone strike near Badhan has prompted sharp questions from local leaders and legal experts about accountability and intelligence sharing in counterterrorism operations.

The US military’s Africa Command (AFRICOM) announced this week that it had killed Omar Abdullahi Ibrahim, describing him as an “arms dealer for al-Shabaab”. The strike took place in Puntland State, but AFRICOM stated it had been conducted “in coordination with the Federal Government of Somalia”.

Jama S. I. Ali, a lawyer based in Badhan, argued that the circumstances surrounding the attack raise serious concerns. “Since the federal National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA) does not operate in Puntland State, who supplied the US with the intelligence on which it based its decision to assassinate Omar Abdullahi Ibrahim?” he wrote.

Pressure had been mounting on the Puntland State government to respond to the death. Ali insisted that Puntland State is obliged to explain to Omar’s family how the US concluded that the respected elder was linked to al-Shabaab, particularly given his recent meeting with Puntland’s president in Bosaso.

Abdisaid Muse, Somalia’s former Foreign Minister and National Security Adviser, expressed outrage in a post on X (formerly Twitter): “A respected Somali elder met the President of Puntland at the PMPF compound in Bosaso only a few days ago. This weekend he was killed in an airstrike and branded ‘al-Shabaab.’ This is not only false, it is dangerous. If an elder can meet a Somali leader in daylight and then be declared a terrorist by nightfall, what message does that send?”

The US military has previously admitted to civilian casualties in Somalia. In 2020, the BBC reported that AFRICOM acknowledged responsibility for an air strike that killed Somali civilians. 

The lawyer stressed that while Somalia needs international support in its fight against transnational terrorist groups, foreign operations must not undermine trust in local leadership or put civilian lives at risk. “Omar Abdullahi Ibrahim has never been blacklisted. The US should come clean on the killing of a Somali nabaddoon [peacemaker] whom Puntland State has never regarded as a terrorism sympathiser,” he said.

Unconfirmed reports suggest that officials in the US Department of Defense reprimanded AFRICOM’s public relations team over its statement claiming the use of intelligence from American assets in Somalia to target a traditional leader who had never previously been linked to terrorist organisations. The US further asserted that it had coordinated with the Federal Government of Somalia in the operation that killed Omar Abdullahi Ibrahim.

© Puntland Post, 2025

The post Questions Raised Over US Drone Strike That Killed Somali Elder Near Badhan appeared first on Puntland Post.