Trump orders airstrikes in North Somalia

Photo provided by the United States Africa Command, the U.S. military conducts coordinated airstrikes against Islamic State operatives in Somalia on Saturday.

President Trump ordered airstrikes on Saturday against the Islamic State in northern Somalia, the first major U.S. military operation overseas since he took office, ‘The New York Times’ reports.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in a statement that the military’s initial assessment was that “multiple operatives” in the remote Golis Mountains in the country’s north were killed in the strikes, and that no civilians were harmed.

The strikes were conducted by Navy and Air Force warplanes, including F/A-18 fighter jets from the aircraft carrier Harry S. Truman operating in the Red Sea, three Defense Department officials said.

The strikes were more symbolic than substantive, several U.S. military and defense officials said, meant more to burnish Mr. Trump’s image as a commander in chief protecting the country from terrorists in the early days of his administration than to neutralize a serious threat.

Trump said in a message on social media that the strikes had killed a “Senior ISIS (banned in Russia) Attack Planner and other terrorists he recruited” who were “hiding in caves.”

Somalia, though, is better known as a harbor for Al Shabab, the terrorist group linked to Al Qaeda (banned in Russia), than for the Islamic State. U.S. intelligence officials estimate that Al Shabab in Somalia has roughly 7,000 to 12,000 members and an annual income — including from taxing or extorting civilians — of about $120 million, making it the largest and wealthiest Qaeda affiliate in the world.

“For Trump, this is important to show a muscular response, especially if he plans to draw down U.S. troop levels from conflict zones,” said Colin P. Clarke, a counterterrorism analyst at the Soufan Group, a security consulting firm based in New York.

The strikes on Saturday also aimed to counter critics who say that rushing active-duty troops to the southwestern border to stem the flow of migrants — a top priority for Mr. Trump — could jeopardize other military missions.

Mr. Hegseth said on Saturday that the United States “stands ready to find and eliminate terrorists who threaten the United States and our allies, even as we conduct robust border-protection” missions.

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