The Voice News: In what a senior Navy official called the “largest airstrike in the history of the world” from an aircraft carrier, 16 U.S. Navy F/A-18 Super Hornets launched from the USS Harry S. Truman and dropped 125,000 pounds of bombs on a cave complex in Somalia on February 1. The attack killed just 14 ISIS-Somalia operatives, according to U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM).
Adm. James Kilby, the Navy’s acting chief of naval operations, made the claim during remarks at the Council on Foreign Relations earlier this week, emphasizing the historical scale and speed of the operation. “It was everything hitting in minutes, all from one aircraft carrier,” he said, highlighting the tactical significance of the strike.
However, Kilby’s remarks were later clarified by a Navy official who said the strike was not comparable to historical bombardments such as Hiroshima or the massive “Christmas Bombings” of the Vietnam War. Instead, the official stressed the strike’s uniqueness stemmed from the sheer volume of ordnance deployed in a short time from a single ship.
AFRICOM’s official press release at the time made no mention of the strike’s magnitude. “In coordination with the Federal Government of Somalia, U.S. Africa Command conducted airstrikes against ISIS-Somalia,” the statement read. “Multiple ISIS-Somalia operatives were killed and no civilians were harmed.”
The 60-ton strike targeted a network of caves in Somalia’s remote Golis Mountains — terrain that complicates conventional attacks and likely influenced the decision to deploy such heavy munitions. AFRICOM did not clarify why such a massive payload was needed to eliminate fewer than 15 militants.
Escalation and Civilian Risk
Since returning to office, President Donald Trump has significantly ramped up U.S. military activity in Somalia. Trump’s new defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, has loosened policy restrictions on airstrikes, allowing field commanders greater latitude. Gen. Michael Langley, AFRICOM’s commander, confirmed expanded targeting authority during a Senate hearing last month.
AFRICOM has conducted nearly 30 airstrikes in Somalia since Trump began his second term in January. That pace could match or exceed the command’s record of 63 strikes in 2019, during Trump’s first term.
The White House boasted on X (formerly Twitter) that “over 100 bloodthirsty terrorists” had been killed since January. The post included surveillance footage of a bomb strike on what appeared to be men walking in a rural area, accompanied by the slogan “WWFY/WWKY: We will find you, and we will kill you.”
However, independent investigations raise doubts about civilian safety. In 2023, The Intercept revealed that a 2018 drone strike, which AFRICOM claimed killed “five terrorists,” actually killed at least three civilians, including 22-year-old Luul Dahir Mohamed and her 4-year-old daughter. Despite repeated efforts, the family has received no response from U.S. authorities.
Recently, AFRICOM has stopped providing public civilian casualty assessments in press releases. “We’re refraining from reporting estimated battle damage and civilian harm probability,” AFRICOM spokesperson Lt. Col. Doug Halleaux said last week.
War Without End
The U.S. has been involved militarily in Somalia since 2002. The tempo of operations has varied under different administrations, with a major spike in airstrikes under Trump. From 2007 to 2017, the U.S. conducted 43 declared airstrikes. During Trump’s first term, that number surged to more than 200. The Biden administration scaled back operations, conducting just 39 strikes in four years.
Trump ordered the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Somalia in late 2020, only for the Biden administration to reverse the move. Despite years of military engagement, both ISIS-Somalia and the more powerful al-Shabab remain active threats, continuing to launch attacks against civilians, businesses, and government institutions in Somalia.
In the wake of this most recent strike, critics have questioned the effectiveness of the decades-long U.S. campaign. There has been no clear articulation of long-term goals in Somalia, and the Trump administration has not addressed how it intends to resolve the conflict.
Meanwhile, two F/A-18 jets have been lost at sea in separate incidents aboard the Harry S. Truman in recent months, resulting in injuries and the loss of $120 million in military hardware.
As President Trump intensifies military operations abroad, his domestic leadership has been marked by authoritarian tendencies. His administration has ignored court rulings, centralized power in loyalists, and cracked down on dissenting media — developments many observers see as threats to American democracy itself.