Ahmed Maeleninine, an Omani-born leader of Islamic State, was killed in U.S. airstrikes against the terror group in Somalia earlier this month, officials of the Puntland region said Wednesday. Maeleninine was the main target of the Feb.

It’s the first U.S. strike in Somalia under the second Trump administration, but follows similar strikes in the country last year under then-President Joe Biden.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said that “multiple operatives” had been killed in remote mountains in the country’s north.

U.S. airstrikes on a cave complex in northeastern Somalia earlier this month killed 14 senior members of the Islamic State’s local group, including an ISIS leader who helped finance the deployment of jihadists into the United States and Europe.

Donald Trump says he ordered military air strikes on a senior attack planner and others from the Islamic State (IS) group in Somalia. "These killers, who we found hiding in caves, threatened the United States and our Allies," Trump posted on social media.

Strike's main target in Somalia earlier this month was behind deployment of terror operatives to the US and Europe, according to US Africa Command

The Islamic State militant group launched an overnight assault on military bases in Somalia's northeastern Puntland state using suicide car and motorbike bombs. However, the attack was successfully repelled by government forces,