President Trump has eased restrictions on US airstrikes and special operations raids in areas outside of countries officially considered combat zones by the US, giving US military commanders the freedom to launch attacks without permission from the White House.
The order reverts back to the policy of the first Trump administration, doing away with restrictions President Biden added to US drone strikes and raids outside of Iraq and Syria, the only two countries the US officially considers combat zones.
Biden’s rules required permission from the White House to target militants outside Iraq and Syria unless they were high-ranking commanders. But the rule had a major loophole: Strikes could be ordered if they could be framed as “self-defense.” In Somalia, the US almost always claims its airstrikes are launched in defense of the US-backed Mogadishu-based government.
Trump’s rules give commanders the ability to target any militants belonging to organizations the US considers terrorist organizations without White House approval. The easing of the restrictions was confirmed by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, who shared a CBS News report about the step on X and wrote, “Correct.”
The news comes amid an uptick in US airstrikes in Somalia and Syria. US officials told CBS that al-Shabaab in Somalia, which the US targeted three times in recent weeks, and the Houthis in Yemen were discussed as potential targets by the Trump administration.
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