The Pentagon is the headquarters building of the United States Department of Defense in Washington DC

By Gary Raynaldo    –  DIPLOMATIC  TIMES

A U.S. airstrike against ISIS in Northeast Somalia Sunday killed two militants, Africa Command said. The military action was conducted in coordination with the Federal Government of Somalia with no civilian casualties reported, according to AFRICOM. The airstrike was the second attack against ISIS this month under the administration of President Trump. It was also the first major military operation of the new Trump administration. On February 1, the U.S. conducted joint airstrikes targeting senior ISIS-Somalia leadership in a series of cave complexes approximately 50 miles southeast of Bosaso. Fourteen ISIS militants were killed in the strike, AFRICOM said.  Speaking of the Feb. 1 operation, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in a statement: “This action further degrades ISIS’s ability to plot and conduct terrorist attacks threatening U.S. citizens, our partners, and innocent civilians and sends a clear signal that the United States always stands ready to find and eliminate terrorists who threaten the United States and our allies, even as we conduct robust border-protection and many other operations under President Trump’s leadership.”

Trump’s military operations in Somalia may come as a surprise to many who recall in his first administration he ordered the withdrawal of more than 700 U.S. counterterrorism troops from Somalia. The Biden administration reversed Trump’s withdrawal that came just weeks before Trump left office and returned approximately 500 troops to Somalia.  Biden’s military operations  in Somalia targeted mainly Al Shabab, the terrorist group linked to Al Qaeda.  Perhaps the  ISIS-Inspired Vehicle Attack on New Year’s Day in New Orleans that killed 14 people influenced the Trump administration to target the terror group in Somalia.