Trump says he ordered airstrikes on Islamic State group in Somalia

Donald Trump says he ordered military airstrikes on a senior attack planner and others from the Islamic State (IS) group in Somalia.

“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 BBC could not immediately independently verify the reports.

Trump did not name any of the people targeted in strikes.

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, Defence Secretary Pete 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 IS “to plot and conduct terrorist attacks” and “sends a clear signal that the United States always stands ready to find and eliminate terrorists”.

Trump also took a swipe at the former administration, stating the US military had targeted this particular IS planner for years, but accused Joe Biden “and his cronies” of not acting quickly enough “to get the job done. I did!”

US forces killed IS leader, Bilal al-Sudani, and 10 of his operatives in a remote mountainous cave in northern Somalia in 2023, in an operation ordered by Biden.

IS rose to international prominence in the 2010s, particularly in Syria and Iraq, but now its presence is mainly restricted to parts of Africa.

The Somali branch of IS was formed in 2015 by a group of defectors from the al-Qaeda affiliated al-Shabab group – the largest jihadist group in Somalia.

IS in Somalia is notorious for extorting locals and mainly carries out small-scale, sporadic attacks, according to the US Office of the Director of National Intelligence.