'We will find you and we will kill you' - Trump says US airstrikes have 'killed many' ISIS terrorists hiding in caves
1 February 2025, 17:41 | Updated: 4 February 2025, 13:21
Donald Trump said US airstrikes he ordered this morning have killed 'many' ISIS terrorists in caves, including a senior 'attack planner'.
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In a post on Truth Social and X, the US president said: "This morning I ordered precision military air strikes on the Senior ISIS Attack Planner and other terrorists he recruited and led in Somalia.
"These killers, who we found hiding in caves, threatened the United States and our Allies.
"The strikes destroyed the caves they live in, and killed many terrorists without, in any way, harming civilians."
He then said the 'senior ISIS Attack Planner' has been targeted by the US Military for years, but blamed former president Biden for failing to 'get the job done'.
Trump added: "Biden and his cronies wouldn’t act quickly enough to get the job done. I did!
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"The message to ISIS and all others who would attack Americans is that 'WE WILL FIND YOU, AND WE WILL KILL YOU!'"
This morning I ordered precision Military air strikes on the Senior ISIS Attack Planner and other terrorists he recruited and led in Somalia. These killers, who we found hiding in caves, threatened the United States and our Allies. The strikes destroyed the caves they live in,…
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 1, 2025
US special forces killed a senior ISIS banker and 10 other members of the terrorist group in a raid on a cave complex in mountains in northern Somalia in 2023, as part of an operation ordered by Biden.
No further details were released by Trump or the White House, and the identity of the killed ISIS planner, as well as the number of casualties, remains unclear.
US defence secretary Pete Hegseth said the strikes were carried out by the US Africa Command, under the direction of Trump and coordinated with Somalia's government.
An initial Pentagon assessment has shown "multiple" operatives were killed and no civilians were harmed.
The number of IS militants in the country is estimated to be in the hundreds, mostly scattered in the Cal Miskaat mountains in Puntland's Bari region, according to the International Crisis Group.
US military officials have warned that IS cells have received increasing direction from the group's leadership that relocated to northern Somalia.
That has included how to kidnap Westerners for ransom, how to learn better military tactics, how to hide from drones and how to build their own small quadcopters.
A US military airstrike in Somalia last May targeted IS militants and killed three, according to US Africa Command.
Ahead of the president's inauguration, his counter-terror chief told LBC that the UK should take back British ISIS members in Syria if they were 'serious allies of the US'.
Sebatian Gorka, who is yet to be formally sworn in, told LBC's Ben Kentish that global jihadism’ is on the rise, and that the UK should take back British members of the Islamic State as the “security of those [Syrian] prisons is not assured.”
Gorka said any ‘serious ally’ of the US “should act in a fashion that reflects that serious commitment”.
