Trump wrote that the attacks “destroyed the caves where they lived and killed many terrorists without wounding civilians”
The United States today “air strikes” against various combatants of the Islamic State (EI) extremist group in Somalia, the US President Donald Trump said.
These attacks aimed at a leader of the extremist group responsible for the planning of attacks and “other terrorists he recruited and directed in Somalia,” explained the US president on his social network Truth.
It was the first attack in Trump’s second term.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the attacks of the US African Command (US Africom) were directed by Trump and coordinated with the Somalian government.
An initial assessment of the Pentagon indicated that multiple operational ones were killed and that no civilian was injured in the attacks.
In the message on the social network, Trump wrote that the attacks “destroyed the caves where they lived and killed many terrorists without wounding civilians.”
“Our Armed Forces have been targeted with this ISIS attack planner, but (former President Joe) Biden and his cronies have not acted enough to do the job. I act! ” said Trump.
“The message for Isis [acrónimo em inglês do grupo extremista) e para todos os outros que querem atacar norte-americanos é a seguinte: ‘Vamos encontrar-vos e matar-vos’”, frisou.
As autoridades militares dos EUA alertaram para o facto de as células do EI terem recebido cada vez mais orientações da liderança do grupo que se deslocou para o norte da Somália.
Essas orientações incluíam a forma de raptar ocidentais para obterem um resgate, a aprendizagem de melhores táticas militares, a forma de se esconderem dos ‘drones’ [aparelhos aéreos não-tripulados] and the construction of their own small quadcopters (‘drones’ of four propellers).
In May 2024, a US military air strike in Somalia targeted IS militants and killed three people, according to the US African command.
It is estimated that the number of IS militants in the country is hundreds, mostly scattered throughout the mountains of Cal Miskaat, in the Bari region of Puntland, according to the international crisis group, a ‘think tank’ connected to defense and security issues.
