CNN: Trump Orders Precision Airstrikes in Somalia

RUSH TRANSCRIPT:
WHITFIELD: “Now to this breaking news. President Trump just announced precision airstrikes in Somalia, marking his first military strikes of his second term in the White House. CNN‘s Alayna Treene is in Florida, where the president is spending the weekend. So, alana, what‘s behind this?”

TREENE: “Well, that‘s right, fred, we did hear from the former or excuse me, from president Donald Trump directly just moments ago, stating on his Truth Social website that he has ordered precision military airstrikes in Somalia. Of what he posted. He said, quote, this morning I ordered precision military airstrikes on the senior I.s.I.s. 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 lived in and killed many terrorists without in any way harming civilians. Now, we also heard fred from the new secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth. He confirmed that he has he had authorized these military airstrikes and also that multiple people were killed in these strikes. This is what Hegseth said in a statement. He said, quote, at President Trump‘s direction and in coordination with the federal government of Somalia, I authorized U.S. Africa command to conduct coordinated airstrikes today targeting I.s.I.s. Somalia operatives in the Jo Ellis mountains. He went on to say, quote, our initial assessment is that multiple operatives, operatives were killed in the airstrikes and no civilians were harmed. This action further degrades I.s.I.s .‘s ability to plot and conduct terrorist attacks. It went on to discuss that strategy further. Now, I do want to be clear as well here, fred, that the president did also attack the Biden Administration and the former president for what he argued was not doing enough with these similar types of strikes in Somalia. But we do know that these types of strikes are actually pretty routine, particularly those targeting Somalia. We know that during the Biden Administration, they carried out several airstrikes and military strikes, both on I.s.I.s., but also al shabab terrorists. During his first term. I also wanted to note that the U.S. has really provided ongoing support to the somali government ever since former President Joe Biden had approved a pentagon request in 2022 to put more troops in the region to deal with the growing terrorist threat. So again, this is something we know that was pretty routine during the Biden Administration. But of course, we are hearing from the president directly saying that he has authored these strikes, authorized these strikes, and that they were successful in taking out this I.s.I.s. attack planner and others that they deemed to be a threat to the region and to the United States.”

WHITFIELD: “Is this considered a continuation of an already established policy since you mentioned these strikes were taking place during the Biden Administration, and now this is the first of this new administration?”

TREENE: “Fred, because we are still learning more information. I did ask the White House if they had more details regarding the nature of this and what led the president to to do this. And also, of course, we saw him kind of celebrating the airstrikes and their success on social media. I think we‘re still learning more details that the White House told me. They will provide more as they come, but this is all of the information they will be giving us at this time. So it‘s hard to say if this is a continuation of the Biden policy, but it is something like I noted that we know that the former president—“