“These killers, who we found hiding in caves, threatened the United States and our Allies.” That was President Donald Trump’s description of the Islamic State fighters hit by American warplanes in Somalia on Saturday.
Trump announced the strike on social media and named its main target only as a “Senior ISIS Attack Planner and other terrorists he recruited and led.” The strikes, he said, “destroyed the caves they live in, and killed many terrorists without, in any way, harming civilians.” Neither Trump nor Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth identified the planner. Hegseth said the strikes hit an area of Somalia’s Golis mountains and “further degrades ISIS’s ability to plot and conduct terrorist attacks.” US officials said the operation was coordinated with Somalia’s federal government.
Defense officials told VOA, on condition of anonymity, that the fighter jets flew from the USS Harry S. Truman, now in the Red Sea. It was the first US airstrike on IS in Somalia so far this year. U.S. Africa Command said it also assessed that multiple operatives were killed.
What Puntland saw
General Adan Abdi Hashi, commander of the Puntland Devish Forces, said the bombs fell on about 10 locations in the Cal-Miskaad area, which belongs to the Golis range. “Most of them caves, and we believe that many of the militants were killed,” he said. Residents of Qandala, a small town in Puntland’s Bari region, told VOA they watched smoke and flames from a distance and heard at least seven huge explosions. They asked not to be named out of fear for their lives.
Puntland officials thanked the United States on social media and called the operation a success, saying it eliminated “several high-ranking #ISIS members.” Somalia’s federal government called the strikes “a critical step in our shared fight against terrorism.”
An offensive already underway
The American strike landed in the middle of a Puntland military campaign against IS fighters hiding in the Cal-Miskaad mountains. Puntland says the United Arab Emirates has supplied air support. The operations began in late December and cleared the militants from large areas of the northeastern highlands. Many of the fighters are foreigners, and they have claimed IED attacks on Puntland forces. The fiercest fighting came late the previous week, when regional forces drove them out of Turmasaale, a strategic spot about 150 kilometers southeast of Bosaso.
The stakes extend past one mountain range. Since 2022, Somalia has housed al-Karrar, one of nine regional Islamic State offices, and IS-Somalia has become a key part of the group’s financial network, moving money to affiliates in Afghanistan and elsewhere in Africa. It has grown more influential under Abdulkadir Mumin, a former al-Shabab militant thought to head IS’s directorate of provinces. Some US officials worry he may now act as the group’s top emir; others disagree, but they agree he matters. The US previously targeted him in May of last year.
Recent intelligence assessments say IS-Somalia has more than doubled in size over the past year and may have as many as 1,600 fighters, with recruits arriving from Ethiopia, Morocco, Sudan, Syria, Tanzania and Yemen. Most of its manpower sits in Puntland, especially the Golis mountains.
