FIRST ON FOX: The US is increasingly conducting airstrikes and military missions against Islamist terrorists in Somalia to reduce the threat of jihadist attacks on the American homeland.
Brennan, a former US Special Forces leader who served in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan, confirmed: “There are ISIS-inspired threats. They’re plotting against the United States homeland as well as against Europe. So that’s kind of the core of the threat.”
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US forces will complete the operation against ISIS in Somalia in August 2025. (Hannah Kantner/AFRICOM)
“Think about it,” Brennan said, “American citizens are being recruited on social media to do bad things in America. And then there are ISIS leadership and ISIS auxiliary cells capable of large-scale attacks. We’ve prevented a lot of that throughout history since September 11 because of what we do abroad, so we’re playing the away game.”
He continued: “If you give a terrorist organization that has the resources like ISIS the time and space to plan and plan, ISIS and terrorist-led attacks can happen. If they are on the run and constantly worried about their survival, they cannot be as effective at planning and scheming.”
The US is waging an aggressive campaign with strikes and intelligence capabilities to break terror’s grip on Somalia and prevent the country from becoming what the State Department described in 2017 as “a safe haven for terrorists.”
File from a handout released to Reuters by IntelCenter shows members of the Somali Islamist rebel group al-Shabab in Mogadishu. Date unknown. (IntelCenter handout/Reuters)
In 2025, US Africa Command (AFRICOM), in coordination with Somalia and other partners, conducted 124 airstrikes against ISIS-Somalia (Islamic State) and Al-Shabab jihadist terrorists and their facilities in Somalia, twelve times the number of missions flown under the Biden administration in 2024.
In the first month of 2026, the US carried out another 26 attacks – 2½ more than the ten carried out in all of 2024.
This photo taken on September 1, 2016 in Nairobi shows a computer screen with the portrait of Somali-born cleric Abdulqadir Mumin, accused of leading the Islamic State group in East Africa. He was placed on a US terror list. (Simon Maina/AFP via Getty Images)
President Donald Trump, referring to Somalia in February 2025, posted on his Truth Social account: “The message to ISIS and anyone else who would attack Americans is that ‘WE WILL FIND YOU, AND WE WILL KILL YOU!'”
“We are now at number 4,” he added. The most infamous, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was hunted in Syria.
Lt. Gen. John W. Brennan will arrive in Nigeria in January for talks on advancing coordinated efforts to improve security conditions and protect vulnerable communities across the country. (U.S. Army Sergeant 1st Class Kenneth Tucceri)
In Somalia, the Islamic State is represented by ISIS-Somalia. “We’ve had a lot of success attacking that network, ISIS-Somalia,” he said.
“We have taken back large swaths of territory – our partners have done so too. We have just shared information with ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance) and fires – air strikes. About well over half of the territory that ISIS Somalia once held in Puntland – an autonomous state in northeastern Somalia – is now under the control of the Puntland Defense Forces.
“They have conducted a tremendous amount of clearance operations, taking back territory, capturing a large number of ISIS operatives as well as much of their equipment. But again, our main mission is to secure the homeland – to ensure that none of this threat migrates back to our shores. I think we have been quite successful in that and if the PDF can continue what they are doing, ISIS Somalia will cease to exist before too long. That is our ultimate goal,” he said.
Soldiers of the Somali National Army walk near Sabiid, one of the towns they liberated from Al-Shabab, in Somalia on November 11, 2025. (Tony Karumba/AFP via Getty Images)
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However, Al-Shabab, the local affiliate of Al Qaeda, is still a problem in Somalia. He said: “In the south you have Al-Shabab, and that threat has certainly changed in the last year as they work with the Houthis.”
“Not so much a threat to external operations,” the general continued, “but in fact Al-Shabab is, I think, the strongest, largest and best-funded part of Al Qaeda’s global franchise and their desire is to take over Mogadishu and turn Somalia into an Al Qaeda caliphate.”
The U.S. role in Somalia in 2026 increasingly involves “advice and assistance at a distance,” with most Somali forces using their own ground attack vehicles, Brennan said, adding that they occasionally give them “a ride to work” — transporting them to strike U.S. helicopters and supporting airstrikes.
AFRICOM provides advanced intelligence capabilities. Brennan said, “We’ve given them tools to help them see what the ISR aircraft sees. We can show them things on a moving map that they wear on their chest.’
A Puntland Defense Force soldier fires a machine gun at a former Islamic State stronghold near Daabdamale, Puntland, Somalia, on January 25, 2025. (Carolyn Van Houten/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
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Brennan also says that US military activity in Somalia could lead to enormous trade potential. “There are natural resources in Somalia that Somalis have not benefited from due to the security situation,” he added. “Now the Somalis realize they may have crucial minerals.”
“There is LNG (liquid natural gas) off the coast of Mogadishu, so our biggest weapon system, from an African perspective, is our private sector economy. If we can get that in there with private sector investment comparable to other countries in Africa, that is a guarantee of security.”
