In a statement, Pentagon spokeswoman Dana W. White indicated Sunday’s attack, which occurred around 9 a.m. local time about 200 miles southwest of Mogadishu, was undertaken as part of the Trump administration’s goal to “systematically dismantle” al-Shabaab. It came in direct response to recent attacks on local forces, she said.

Separately, U.S. officials described the target as a command and logistics node located within one of al-Shabaab’s strongholds where the group has “cemented its control” and established the means to shelter other unidentified “radical terrorists.” Speaking to The Associated Press, Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed said the operation occurred in Sakow, which is well inland and home to a terrorist training camp.

The Pentagon has come to view al-Shabaab with increasing concern, in large part because the group remains capable of carrying out deadly attacks on civilians and the alliance of African military forces fighting the group. Since late-2016, militants have overrun three bases in Somalia “by amassing large numbers of fighters and attacking in overwhelming numbers,” U.S. military officials said, growing its combat capability in the process by looting heavy weapons and small arms, armored vehicles and explosives.

U.S. officials won’t say precisely how many American troops are in Somalia now. The number is believed to be a few hundred.

But in a sign of how aggressively the U.S. military aims to address this threat, it recently dispatched a one-star Army general to coordinate the campaign there. Brig. Gen. Miguel A. Castellanos was hand selected by U.S. Africa Command chief Gen. Thomas Waldhauser “to help synchronize efforts between international military partners, pull various agencies together and develop momentum to change the dynamic of Somalia,” according to a news release announcing the shift. The Mogadishu Coordination Cell, as it’s called, is based at the city’s airport, it says.

And last month, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis signaled Washington’s willingness to consider deploying additional U.S. troops to Somalia should the troubled African nation seek greater military aid to combat al-Shabaab. At the time, no such request had been made by the Somali government, but Mattis’ openness about entertaining such a possibility highlights the Trump administration’s evolving perspective on how aggressively it should support indigenous forces willing to fight mutual adversaries.

The Pentagon’s strategy there, as with other regions where a lack of governance has allowed terror groups to take root, centers on training and advising — or “working by, with and through our allies,” as officials now characterize it. It also entails direct counter-terror assistance, a more-dangerous mission led by elite special operations forces. On May 5 it resulted in the first American combat deathin Somalia since the early 1990s.

Andrew deGrandpre is Military Times’ senior editor and Pentagon bureau chief. On Twitter: @adegrandpre

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Mattis addressed the Pentagon press corps to explain how the U.S.-led coalition has endeavored to meet President Donald Trump’s directive, issued at the beginning of his administration, to bring greater force to bear on ISIS in Syria and Iraq and, it is hoped, to disrupt the group’s ability to gain a foothold elsewhere. The secretary was flanked by his top general, Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford, and the ISIS coalition’s presidential envoy, Brett McGurk.

The trio cited data points intended to showcase progress: more than 55 percent of ISIS territory has been retaken in Syria and Iraq; more than 4 million people have been liberated. “And not one inch of territory seized from ISIS has been recaptured by them,” they noted.

“Our strategic approach,” Dunford said, “is to cut the connectivity between ISIS affiliates and associates, … their illicit resources and their message. Our objective is to drive down ISIS’s capability to a point where local forces, with tailored support from the international community, are able to provide security. And we’re doing this today in Libya, Somalia and Syria, Yemen and Afghanistan.”

Yet despite their confident tone, some important questions remain.

It’s unclear, for instance, the extent to which U.S. troops will be needed long term. There are fewer than 10,000 Americans spread between Syria and Iraq, with thousands more deployed close by in Jordan and Kuwait. Mattis is said to be negotiating plans for leaving a residual force spread between various Iraqi military facilities, but he indicated Friday a desire to avoid an open-ended commitment in Syria where, combined with the Islamic State’s murderous tyranny, a ferocious civil war has displaced millions.

“I’m not willing to sign up for that. That’s not our intent,” Mattis replied when asked whether American personnel could remain in Syria indefinitely. “We’re there to drive ISIS to its knees. … There’s got to be a political solution to the larger issues there. It’s not going to be U.S. troops at the point of a gun making that happen.”

It’s also unclear when the group’s de facto capital in Raqqa might fall, an eagerly awaited development that would be seen as a symbolic victory for the coalition and a blow to ISIS given its ambition to establish a caliphate. Backed by U.S. military advisers and American firepower, thousands of Arab and Kurdish fighters have nearly encircled the city, but Mattis declined to offer an assessment beyond to say it will be difficult once local forces enter Raqqa, and that he intends to afford commanders the time they need to completely isolate those inside so they cannot flee.

“What will it look like when we say that we’ve got success?” Mattis said. “I think what we’ll see is the local security forces, police, that sort of organization that can handle it. … Police can’t handle a force that’s driving tanks and using artillery, or has thousands of fighters in mobile vehicles that allow them to range far and wide.”

And there’s also the matter of stabilizing these areas once ISIS is gone. Again, though, no easy answers.

Such planning is underway, McGurk said, but there is much that’s yet to be resolved. The focus, he said, is on low-cost, locally led projects that will enable displaced people to return home. Establishing local police forces will be an important piece of that, but so will restoring water and electricity.

“Stabilization is not nation building,” McGurk added, using a term that’s become synonymous with the mostly fruitless, years-long military occupations in Afghanistan and Iraq. “We’re not attempting to dictate political outcomes nor is it long-term reconstruction where projects are chosen by outsiders often with no connection to the local community, costing and often wasting billions of dollars.”

Like the Islamic State’s stronghold of Mosul in Iraq, Raqqa is heavily fortified and the coalition is bracing for a gritty, months-long fight through dense urban neighborhoods. After those cities are liberated, commanders will turn their attention to other areas where ISIS has amassed. In Syria, that includes a swath of territory stretching to the southeast from Deir el-Zour, through an open valley along the Euphrates River, to the Iraqi border town of al-Qaim.

Syria’s embattled president, Bashar al Assad, has indicated he intends to reassert government authority in that region, making the Russian military vitally important to ensure the anti-ISIS campaign can continue without interference, officials said. Russia and the U.S. have established deconfliction zones throughout the country. The phrase refers both to times and locations where both militaries agree not to impede one another’s objectives.

“We are looking for the Russians to work with the regime” as the U.S. and its allies begin to concentrate on ISIS territory in the mid-Euphrates valley, Dunford said. The chairman alluded to a plan that’s being co-developed among officials in Washington and Moscow to further “ensure that we can continue to take the campaign to ISIS and ensure the safety of our personnel.”

He declined to elaborate, but characterized Russians’ response as “enthusiastic.”

Another area of increasing concern is in southern Syria, where on Thursday the U.S. struck Assad loyalists as they advanced on an American training camp — apparently in defiance of Russian demands for them to stand down. Mattis said Friday that it appears these fighters were affiliated with Iran, which along with the militant group Hezbollah continues to back Assad in his conflict with an anti-government opposition. “I don’t know there were Iranians on the ground, but Iranian-directed forces,” he added.

“Iran’s activities [in Syria] have not been helpful. They’ve been hurtful,” said Mattis, a retired Marine Corps general whom many believe was forced out as the head of the U.S. Central Command because he objected to President Obama’s pursuit of a nuclear accord with Tehran. “They’ve extended a war that should have ended long ago.

“I’ve been in a lot of refugee camps over my years on active duty from — from the Dalmatian Coast to Africa and other places, seen boat people pulled out of the water off Vietnam. I have never seen refugees as traumatized as I’ve seen come out of Syria. Never. And Iran bears no little responsibility for that situation.”

Andrew deGrandpre is Military Times’ senior editor and Pentagon bureau chief. On Twitter:

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Thursday’s incident underscores, once again, the complex dynamic facing U.S. forces inside of war-torn Syria. It comes six weeks after President Donald Trump ordered a retaliatory attack on Assad’s military for its alleged use of chemical weapons against civilians. At the time, U.S. officials accused Russia of being complicit but have since begun to work more closely with Moscow hoping to establish areas that are protected from violence. For now, both sides appear to be taking that seriously.

“We are not increasing our role in the Syrian civil war, but we will defend our troops,” Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told reporters Thursday at the outset of a meeting with the Swedish defense minister.

This was despite #Russian attempts to dissuade pro-regime movement towards At Tanf, #Coalition aircraft show of force, & warning shots2/3

— Inherent Resolve (@CJTFOIR) May 18, 2017

There are believed to be approximately 900 American military personnel in Syria. Most are concentrated in the north, assisting local forces who are focused on liberating cities and towns occupied by the Islamic State. U.S. officials said Thursday that the Americans on the ground in At Tanf were training anti-ISIS units.

But some clandestine American units are training entities who oppose Assad as well, and it’s believed some of that work occurs in At Tanf. The border town is the site of significant activity dating back more than a year. Just last month, for instance, ISIS militants attacked a facility housing U.S. special operations forces as they trained opposition fighters. With the aid of airstrikes, the Americans repelled the attack, killing between 20 and 30 attackers.

Many analysts believe the town is a transfer station connecting the Syrian government with its supporters in Iran, Iraq and Lebanon, where Hezbollah is based. Linking the corridor would provide a stable land transit route to resupply the regime and bolster its proxies.

“The stated intent of that pro-regime convoy was to reopen the Damascus-Baghdad highway,” said Jennifer Cafarella, a Syria expert at the Institute for the Study of War. “I think [they] intended to test U.S. resolve and found it appropriately intact when it comes to force protection.”

Andrew deGrandpre is Military Times’ senior editor and Pentagon bureau chief. On Twitter:  @adegrandpre.  Shawn Snow is a staff writer and Military Times’ Early Bird editor. On Twitter:  @SnowSox184. 

A U.S. aircraft dropped a GBU-43 Massive Ordnance Air Blast, also known as a MOAB, as part of ongoing efforts to defeat ISIS-Khorasan in Afghanistan, according to a statement from U.S. Central Command. 

The strike aimed to minimize the risk to Afghan and U.S. forces conducting clearing operations in the area, the release said.

“As ISIS-K’s losses have mounted, they are using IEDs, bunkers and tunnels to thicken their defense,” Gen. John W. Nicholson, the top commander in Afghanistan, said in the release. “This is the right munition to reduce these obstacles and maintain the momentum of our offensive against ISIS-K.”

The release said the U.S. took “every precaution” to avoid civilian casualties, a position White House spokesman Sean Spicer reiterated on Thursday.

“The United States takes the fight against ISIS very seriously and in order to defeat the group, we must deny them operational space, which we did,” Spicer said. “The United States took all precautions necessary to prevent civilian casualties and collateral damage as a result of the operation.”

Spicer also described the bomb as “a large, powerful and accurately delivered weapon.”

When asked if he authorized the bomb’s use during an event at the White House Thursday, Trump praised the military’s performance and told reporters, “Everybody knows exactly what happened.”

“What I do is authorize my military,” Trump continued. “We have the greatest military in the world and they’ve done a job as usual. We have given them total authorization and that’s what they’re doing and, frankly, that’s why they’ve been so successful lately.”

When asked if the bombing sent a message to North Korea, Trump said, “I don’t know if this sends a message, it doesn’t make any difference if it does or not.”

The strike comes just days after a Special Forces soldier was killed in Nangarhar province. Staff Sgt. Mark De Alencar, of 7th Special Forces Group, was killed Saturday by enemy small arms fire while his unit was conducting counter-ISIS operations, according to the Defense Department.

The fact that the U.S. dropped the MOAB in the same province where De Alencar was killed is probably not a coincidence, said Bill Roggio, of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

“There might have been a degree of payback here as well,” Roggio told Military Times. “There’s certainly nothing wrong with that, especially if you’re killing your enemy.”

ISIS has had a strong presence in Nangarhar and three other Afghan provinces for years, said Roggio, who also is the editor of the Long War Journal. The fact that the U.S. dropped the MOAB indicates that ISIS remains a threat in the area, he said. The weapon is also effective against enemy fighters who hide in caves.

“What it does is basically suck out all of the oxygen and lights the air on fire,” Roggio said. “It’s a way to get into areas where conventional bombs can’t reach.”

The use of the GBU-43/B should not be understood as a larger show of force meant to send a message to Syria or other nations, said Charles A. Horner, a retired 4-star Air Force general who commanded U.S. air assets during Desert Storm. Instead, it was likely employed because of its ability to destroy ISIS’s underground infrastructure, he said.

“They were wanting to collapse tunnels, and they don’t know exactly where the tunnel is so they want to cause an earthquake to cave them in,” he said.

The GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb prototype moments before it makes contact March 11, 2003. The detonation created a mushroom cloud that could be seen from up to 20 miles away.

Photo Credit: Air Force

The 30-foot, 21,600-pound, GPS-guided MOAB was designed before the Iraq war to try to pressure Saddam Hussein, but none were ever used in the war. The first operational MOAB was deployed on April 11, 2003, but by that point, coalition troops had entered Baghdad and the Iraqi army had crumbled. According to an Air Force release published on the fifth anniversary of its March 11, 2003, test, it produced a mushroom cloud that could be seen from 20 miles away. It is so big, it doesn’t fit into bombers and instead must be carried in the back of a C-130. 

Footage of the March 2003 test available online shows a C-130 flying over a range at Eglin. A parachute pops out the back, catches the wind, and drags a platform carrying the MOAB from the airplane. The MOAB falls from the platform, pops out its directional fins, and detonates just above the ground with a deafening roar.

After the initial phase of the war passed without it being used, it became a museum piece and was added to the Air Armament Museum at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida in 2004. That MOAB on display was an empty shell, but the Air Force said at the time that it could be refilled with explosives and put back into service. 

The massive U.S. attack comes as several regional powers, including Russia, China, Iran and Pakistan, have begun to exert more influence — in some cases to undermine NATO’s objectives.

ISIS Khorasan is an affiliate of the group’s core network in Syria and Iraq. It receives tactical advice and some financial support from outside Afghanistan, but U.S. officials have so far not observed an influx of fighters from either country. Speaking at the Pentagon in December, Nicholson estimated that his forces had killed about 500 ISIS fighters in Afghanistan throughout 2016, including 12 of the group’s most senior leaders. Those losses accounted for about 25 to 30 percent of ISIS-K’s total size, he said, and reduced its foothold in Afghanistan from nine districts to three.

On Wednesday, the White House announced it is conducting a broader strategy review intended to establish the United States’ next steps for the 15-year Afghanistan campaign. As part of that, the president intends to dispatch his national security adviser, Army Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, to “find out how we can make progress alongside our Afghan partners.”

This story is developing. Check back for updates. 

Reporters Stephen Losey, Andrew deGrandpre and Valerie Insinna contributed to this report.

Col. Gen. Sergei Rudskoi of the military’s General Staff said the coalition was trying to “completely destroy critical infrastructure in Syria and complicate post-war reconstruction as much as possible.”

A U.S.-backed Syrian opposition force has insisted it is taking care to preserve vital infrastructure as it steps up military operations in northern Syria ahead of a push on Raqqa, the de facto capital of the ISIS group’s self-styled caliphate.

Rudskoi further claimed that coalition jets had destroyed four bridges over the Euphrates River in Syria and hit the Tabqa dam to the west of Raqqa.

The collapse of the dam would cause an “ecological catastrophe” and lead to “numerous” civilian deaths, he said.

On Monday, the U.S.-led coalition reiterated that it is taking every precaution to ensure the integrity of the dam. “To our knowledge, the dam has not been structurally damaged,” it said on its Twitter account.

A spillway north of the structure is under control of the U.S.-backed and Kurdish-led opposition group known as the Syrian Democratic Forces, and can be used to relieve pressure behind the dam, the coalition told The Associated Press in an email on Sunday.

Engineers who used to work at the site have expressed doubt that the spillway could accommodate the water flow but said it will still take at least a month for the lake to reach critical levels if the gates are not opened. IS has warned that the dam’s main gates are out of service, causing water levels to rise.

Pressure on ISIS has intensified in recent months as the group has suffered a series of battlefield reverses in both Syria and neighboring Iraq.

This still image taken from drone footage posted online Monday, March. 27, 2017 by the Aamaq News Agency, a media arm of the Islamic State group, shows the Tabqa Dam, in Raqqa, Syria.

Photo Credit: Aamaq News Agency via AP

With SDF forces to the north and west of Raqqa, a push on the city is shaping up to be the next major battle. Last week, U.S. aircraft ferried hundreds of SDF fighters, as well as American artillery and military advisers, behind ISIS lines.

President Bashar Assad’s government has objected to U.S. involvement, saying that American forces are not authorized to be on Syrian soil. For its part, Moscow prefers seeing Syrian government forces leading the assault on Raqqa.

Activist groups said Monday the city itself has been without electricity and municipal water for three to five days.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the cuts are due to the fighting around Tabqa Dam, 40 kilometers (25 miles) west of Raqqa.

Rudskoi said Tuesday that Syrian government forces, with Russian military assistance, are making progress against ISIS. Russia has been Assad’s main backer and has played a key role in turning the tide of war in his favor.

Syrian forces now control of territory up to 16 kilometers (13 miles) around the historic town of Palmyra, Rudskoi said, adding that they recently seized control of high ground held by ISIS along a highway connecting Palmyra and the capital, Damascus.

Syrian troops fully recaptured Palmyra earlier this month after a push that saw ISIS defenses crumble and their fighters flee in the face of artillery fire and intense Russia-backed airstrikes. The Syrian government had seized the town from Islamic State militants last March, only to lose it again 10 months later.

Separately on Tuesday, reports emerged that an agreement has been reached for the surrender and evacuation of four besieged areas in Syria.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the agreement stipulates the evacuation of the rebel-held Damascus suburbs of Madaya and Zabadani, besieged by government forces and Lebanese Hezbollah fighters for the past two years, in return for the evacuation of the northwestern villages of Foua and Kfarya, which have been besieged by insurgents since early 2015.

Some 60,000 people live in the four besieged areas, according to the U.N.

Muhammad Darwish, a doctor from Madaya, confirmed an agreement to evacuate rebels had been struck and that it would likely be implemented a week from now. He said the evacuation was voluntary, and that civilians could stay.

The Washington-based Siege Watch monitoring group said in a series of Tweets that the deal, which would result in massive forced population transfers, was mediated by Iran and signed in Qatar.

Such deals have become common in Syria, where rebels surrender following years of siege and bombardment, and are allowed safe passage to opposition-held areas further north in return.

The Syrian government has rejected allegations that such deals amount to the forced displacement of civilians.

Associated Press Writer Philip Issa in Beirut contributed to this report.

Tillerson alluded to the intensified campaign, but said the Trump administration was still refining its strategy.

“A more defined course of action in Syria is still coming together,” he said. “But I can say that the United States will increase our pressure on ISIS and al-Qaida and will work to establish interim zones of stability, through cease-fires, to allow refugees to return home.”

The reference to “zones of stability” appeared to stop short of “safe zones,” which the U.S. military has been extremely reluctant to commit to enforcing in Syria, even as Trump and others have raised the idea at various times.

A member of the Iraqi counter-terrorism service (CTS) engages in combat with jihadists at al-Dawasah neighborhood in west Mosul, on the outskirts of the old city, on March 21, 2017, during the government forces’ ongoing offensive to retake the city from Islamic State (IS) group fighters.

Photo Credit: Ahmad al-Rubaye/AFP via Getty Images

Nothing Tillerson outlined departed significantly from the Obama administration’s approach, which focused on using local forces to retake territory along with efforts to disrupt ISIS recruitment and financing, and the blueprint of the multilateral effort seemed unchanged. The strategy is complicated in Syria, where a partnership with Kurdish forces has prompted difficult discussions with Turkey, which sees the militants as a national security threat.

Tillerson said the United States would play its part and pay its fair share of the overall operation. But he said other nations, particularly those which have faced ISIS or ISIS-inspired attacks, must do more. He said increased intelligence and information sharing could overcome traditional rivalries between agencies and governments, and advocated an enhanced online effort to halt the spread of extremist views, especially as ISIS loses ground in Iraq and Syria.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Hungary’s foreign minister said he liked what he heard.

“We are enthusiastic about the new U.S. strategy,” Peter Szijjarto said, adding that he saw Trump’s administration determined “not only to fight against ISIS, but totally eliminate ISIS.” He said his country would send 50 more soldiers to Iraq, taking its contribution to 200.

As the militant organization becomes more encircled, the mission will change. Officials expect in the coming months to see the dissipation of surviving fighters into underground cells that could plan and mount attacks throughout the Middle East, South and Central Asia, Europe, South America, and the United States.

“As we stabilize areas encompassing ISIS’ phony physical caliphate in Iraq and Syria, we also must prevent their seeds of hatred from taking root elsewhere,” Tillerson said. “We must ensure ISIS cannot gain or maintain footholds in new regions of the world. We must fight ISIS online as aggressively as we would on the ground. A digital caliphate must not flourish in the place of a physical one.”

The officials in Washington also hope to figure out how best to deal with the inevitably messy humanitarian and political aftermath of the anticipated ISIS battlefield defeat. There are widespread fears of chaos, such as what emerged after NATO’s intervention in Libya in 2011, that could further fracture the region’s deep ethnic and religious splits, and complicate the stated goal of preserving the Syrian and Iraqi states.

Associated Press writer Bradley Klapper contributed to this report.