As recently reported, the United States revealed that a primary rationale for such attacks is self-defense.
The United States noted that it intends to reduce the odds of a terrorist attack on its home soil, and thus its aggression towards countries like Somalia.
In an exclusive with Fox News Digital, U.S. Army Lt. Gen. John Brennan, the second-highest-ranking officer at U.S. Africa Command, disclosed that the terrorists are mainly affiliated with Islamic State (ISIS) or al Qaeda.
“There’s ISIS-inspired threats. They plot against the United States homeland as well as Europe. So that’s kind of the nexus of the threat,” he said during the interview.
He also revealed that attacks could be internal.
“American citizens on social media get recruited to do bad things inside America. And then there’s ISIS lead and ISIS resource cells that are capable of larger-scale attacks.
We’ve stopped, over the history since 9/11, a lot of those from happening, because of what we do overseas, so we’re playing the away game,” he stated.
“When you give a terrorist organization that has resourcing like ISIS time and space to plot and plan, those ISIS and terrorist-led attacks can happen.
If they’re on the run, and they’re constantly worried about surviving, they can’t be as effective at planning and plotting,” he added.
In a bid to crush the insecurity in the eastern African country, the United States, via the .S. Africa Command (AFRICOM), collaborated with Somali and international partners to execute 124 airstrikes on ISIS-Somalia (Islamic State) and al-Shabab jihadi militants and their facilities, last year alone.
As seen on Fox News, the first month of 2026 alone brought about another 26 attacks, far more than the 10 attacks recorded throughout the entirety of 2024.
Brennan further revealed in the interview that Islamist terrorism now focuses on Africa, particularly Somalia, rather than the Middle East.
“The caliph, absolute leader, of the global ISIS network, Abdulqadir Mumin, is a Somali, and he is in the (Somali) Golis Mountains along with a lot of his key leaders.
And from that location, they direct terrorist activities, not just across Africa. He is directing global ISIS operations that go to the Far East, Europe, and the U.S,” he said.
We’ve taken large swathes of terrain back, our partners have. We’ve just enabled intel sharing ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance) and fires, airstrikes.
About well over half the territory that ISIS Somalia once maintained up in Puntland, an autonomous state in North-Eastern Somalia, is now under the control of the Puntland Defense Forces,” he added.
