U.S. Conducts Airstrike on Islamic State’s Somalia Province

Brussels (Brussels Morning) – The United States, in coordination with the Somali government, carried out targeted airstrikes on ISIS positions in Somalia through AFRICOM. No civilian casualties to be deplored. 

Trump claims a successful operation in Somalia

US President Donald Trump declared this 1^st of February 2025 on X that an anti-terrorist operation struck The Islamic State’s Somalia Province (ISS) members in the blank”>Golis Mountains of Somalia. He claims a “senior ISIS attack planner” had been neutralized without causing civilian casualties. 

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also emphasized that no civilian casualties were to be deplored but did not provide specifics regarding casualties or even accomplished objectives. For now, we know that the U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) carried out the operation in coordination with the Somali government.

Furthermore, in a politization of the operation, Trump also criticized the Biden administration for what he called an unwarranted hold-up in removing the prominent terrorist target in Somalia – which follows recent trends of showcasing the pro-activity of his administration compared to the last. It is worth noting that the Biden administration had conducted airstrikes in Somalia, but not on the ISIS backed ISS, but rather targeting blank”>Al Qaeda. 

A decade of ISS presence

The ISS has had a significant presence in Somalia since 2015 and is especially influential in the Puntland region to the north of the country. It has between 100 and 400 fighters as of blank”>September 2024 – and interestingly half of them are reported to be foreigners.

The relatively low number of the ISS should not lead to dismiss their potential impact as the organizations has been active and dangerous on multiple occasions – exemplified by the blank”>attack on the military base of Puntland on the 31^st of December 2024 which claimed the life of 20 regional security forces. It’s also important to note that in spite of its small size, ISS has consistently made money and maintained itself for the last decade – in the first half of 2022, their extortion tactics brought in close to blank”>2 million dollars alone.

Because of this prolonged presence of terrorism in Somalia, this U.S. counter-terrorist operation is not the first one. On the 25^th of January 2023 an operation led to the death of ISIS leader blank”>Bilal al-Sudani for instance.