President Trump directed a military attack Saturday on a high-ranking ISIS leader and his cohorts in Somalia — sending a resounding message to terrorists the world over in just his second week in office.
Trump announced the bold airstrikes on his Truth Social network: “These killers, who we found hiding in caves, threatened the United States and our Allies. The strikes destroyed the caves they live in, and killed many terrorists without, in any way, harming civilians.
“The message to ISIS and all others who would attack Americans is that ‘WE WILL FIND YOU, AND WE WILL KILL YOU!,’” Trump warned.
The target was a senior ISIS attack planner, Trump said. The name and fate of the Islamic terror mastermind was not shared.
The mission was carried out by F-16 Fighting Falcons, F-15E Strike Eagles and a the deadly A-10 Thunderbolt II, otherwise known as the tank-busting ‘Warthog’ — all launched from the USS Harry S. Truman Nimitz-class aircraft carrier.
The strike took out the ISIS operatives in the Cal-Miskaad mountains in the Bahaya region in the war-torn Eastern African nation.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said “multiple operatives were killed” in the airstrikes, further degrading “ISIS’s ability to plot and conduct terrorist attacks threatening U.S. citizens, our partners, and innocent civilians.” He added that the U.S. forces worked with Somali authorities to carry out the offensive.
Hegseth said the strikes send “a clear signal that the United States always stands ready to find and eliminate terrorists who threaten the United States and our allies, even as we conduct robust border protection and many other operations under President Trump’s leadership.”
The operation comes amid ongoing efforts to stamp out ISIS. Local US-allied authorities launched an operation last week to clear out 100 hideouts throughout the Cal-Miskaad cave system.
The Somali president’s office said President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud was informed of the airstrike. Mohamud “acknowledges the unwavering support of the United States in the fight against international terrorism,” his office said on X.
“This latest operation reinforces the strong security partnership between Somalia and the United States in combating extremist threats,” the post said.
In his Truth Social post, Trump took a swipe at the Biden administration for failing to clean ISIS out of the country. “Our Military has targeted this ISIS Attack Planner for years, but Biden and his cronies wouldn’t act quickly enough to get the job done,” he bragged. “I did!”
Last month, an operation in Syria killed an ISIS leader, and in September, the U.S. killed 37 terrorists in Syria, including multiple senior leaders of ISIS and Hurras al-Din, an affiliate of al Qaeda.
ISIS-Somalia took shape in 2015 after a group of defectors from al Qaeda-affiliated terror group al-Shabaab organized and pledged their allegiance to ISIS.
The group’s attacks have been described as “sporadic,” consisting largely of close-quarter assassinations and IED operations.
The group is believed to be between 100 and 400 members strong, according to the office of the Director of National Intelligence.
