Killed walking home from school: why did Somali children become targets of US drone strikes?

They had just settled down for breakfast when the noise came. Some paused in the eating of their slow-cooked beans – cambuulo – spooked by the haunting high-pitched hum. Others pressed their faces against windows, scanning skywards. Farmers in nearby maize fields watched the objects circling above Jamaame, a town in southern Somalia.

Shortly after 9am on 15 November 2025, Jamaame shuddered from a series of explosions.

The home of Abdullahi Mohamed Abo Sheikh Ali, who was out tending his fields that day, was among those obliterated. His grandfather Mohamed raced towards the rubble.

“Clothes and books were scattered on the ground, but I couldn’t focus on them. I was in shock, standing before the bodies of my grandchildren. They were ripped to pieces.”

Scrabbling among the debris, Mohamed found the body of Safiyo Hassan Abukar, his daughter-in-law. She had been heavily pregnant.

Beside her were the remains of Abdifatah, her eldest child. It was little surprise the 10-year-old was found so close to his mother.

“Abdifatah never left her side, always helping with chores. When he was around, she needed no one else,” says Mohamed.

Seven-year-old Abdinasir, lay dead nearby. Abdinasir had doted on his grandfather. “He always asked me to pray so he could memorise the Qur’an. Sometimes I called him my ‘prayer seeker’ and he would smile.”

The bodies of two more brothers – Hussein, six and Abdurahman, four – were among the debris.

The family were killed during a US airstrike in Somalia. According to a Guardian investigation, at least 12 civilians, including eight children, died during the attack.

It is the deadliest US operation for civilians in Somalia during either Trump administration. The US had not killed so many innocent people in a single incident in the east African country for 18 years. The previous highest confirmed toll was the bloody, botched US military operation in the capital, Mogadishu, that became known as the 1993 Black Hawk Down incident.

Despite the scale, no investigation appears to have been launched into the attack on Jamaame six months ago. No one has been held accountable for the deaths – the US refused to admit that a single civilian died in the town that day.

Using photographs, video footage, and X-rays of children’s shrapnel injuries, alongside witness testimony, the Guardian has pieced together the first detailed account of the massacre.