{"id":68755,"date":"2017-11-13T20:13:47","date_gmt":"2017-11-13T20:13:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/uncategorized\/2017\/11\/13\/us-targeted-isis-in-somalia-could-be-a-significant-threat\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T14:15:25","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T14:15:25","slug":"us-targeted-isis-in-somalia-could-be-a-significant-threat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/flashpoints\/2017\/11\/13\/us-targeted-isis-in-somalia-could-be-a-significant-threat\/","title":{"rendered":"US-targeted ISIS in Somalia could be a ‘significant threat’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

MOGADISHU, Somalia \u2014 The Islamic State group\u2019s growing presence in Somalia could become a \u201csignificant threat\u201d if it attracts fighters fleeing collapsing strongholds in Syria and Iraq, experts say, and already it seems to be influencing local al-Shabab extremists to adopt tactics like beheadings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The U.S. military this month carried out its first drone strikes against ISIS fighters in Somalia, raising questions about the strength of the group that emerged just two years ago. A second strike targeted the fighters on Sunday, with the U.S. saying \u201csome terrorists\u201d were killed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Islamic State group burst into public view in Somalia late last year as dozens of armed men seized the port town of Qandala in the northern Puntland region, calling it the seat of the \u201cIslamic Caliphate in Somalia.\u201d They beheaded a number of civilians, causing more than 20,000 residents to flee, and held the town for weeks until they were forced out by Somali troops, backed by U.S. military advisers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since then, ISIS fighters have stormed a hotel popular with government officials in Puntland\u2019s commercial hub of Bossaso and claimed their first suicide attack at a Bossaso security checkpoint.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This long-fractured Horn of Africa nation with its weak central government already struggles to combat al-Shabab, an ally of al-Qaida, which is blamed for last month\u2019s truck bombing in the capital, Mogadishu, that killed more than 350 in the country\u2019s deadliest attack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Trump administration early this year approved expanded military operations in Somalia as it puts counterterrorism at the top of its Africa agenda. The U.S. military on Sunday told The Associated Press it had carried out 26 airstrikes this year against al-Shabab and now the Islamic State group.<\/p>\n\n\n\t