ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - United States President Donald Trump said on Saturday that he ordered airstrikes on a senior Islamic State (ISIS) militant in Somalia.
“This morning I ordered precision Military air strikes on the Senior ISIS Attack Planner and other terrorists he recruited and led in Somalia,” Trump wrote on X. “The strikes destroyed the caves they live in, and killed many terrorists without, in any way, harming civilians.”
He did not name the person targeted in the strikes.
“The message to ISIS and all others who would attack Americans is that ‘WE WILL FIND YOU, AND WE WILL KILL YOU!’” he added.
The strike was coordinated with the Somalian government and targeted “ISIS-Somalia operatives in the Golis mountains,” Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said in a statement.
“Our initial assessment is that multiple operatives were killed in the airstrikes and no civilians were harmed. This action further degrades ISIS's ability to plot and conduct terrorist attacks,” he added.
In 2014, ISIS declared a caliphate in areas of Iraq and Syria that it had seized control of. The group was declared territorially defeated in 2019, but continues to pose a global security threat.
