OAN Staff James Meyers
11:03 AM – Saturday, February 1, 2025
The U.S. military has conducted coordinated airstrikes that were ordered by President Donald Trump against ISIS operatives in Somalia, making it the first strikes carried out in the African nation under the new Trump administration.
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Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Saturday that the strikes by U.S. Africa Command was directed by Trump and coordinated with Somalia’s government.
“These killers, who we found hiding in caves, threatened the United States and our Allies,” Trump posted on social media.
“The strikes destroyed the caves they live in, and killed many terrorists without, in any way, harming civilians.”
The president ended his post with: “The message to ISIS and all others who would attack Americans is that “WE WILL FIND YOU, AND WE WILL KILL YOU!”
In a statement, Hegseth said “our initial assessment is that multiple operatives were killed in the airstrikes and no civilians were harmed.”
Hegseth said the strikes “further degrade” the ability of ISIS “to plot and conduct terrorist attacks” and “sends a clear signal that the United States always stands ready to find and eliminate terrorists.”
In his statements Trump took a shot at the previous administration, stating that the U.S. military had targeted this ISIS planner for years, but accused former President Joe Biden “and his cronies” of not acting quickly enough “to get the job done. I did!”
ISIS rose to international attention in the 2010s, particularly in Syria and Iraq, but has since been mainly resorted to parts of Africa.
The Somali branch of ISIS was formed in 2015 by a group of defectors from the al-Qaeda affiliated al-Shabab group, which is the largest jihadist group in Somalia.
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