Donald Trump pursuing ‘rapidly escalating campaign’ of air strikes across the globe

Donald Trump has ramped up US air strikes with targets in Somalia and Yemen most frequently hit, according to a monitoring organisation.

The number of global military operations has more than doubled since 2024, the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data (ACLED) group said. 

On Monday, Trump said that the US had struck a dock facility in Venezuela, the first known example of its air war on ‘narco-terrorists’

The acknowledgement followed an attack on what the Pentagon said were ISIS targets in north-western Nigeria on Christmas Day.

Under Trump, the US has also carried out strikes on three key nuclear sites in Iran, as well as on targets in Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Somalia. 

The escalation is being pursued by a president who is eager to land the Nobel Peace Prize and had wanted the US to stop policing the world.  

Dr Ladd Serwat, senior analyst for Africa at ACLED, told Metro: ‘The US strikes in Nigeria are part of a rapidly escalating campaign of aerial warfare by the American military. 

‘Targets in Somalia and Yemen’

‘This was the first US air strike in Nigeria since 1997, when ACLED began recording data. Globally, US military air and drone strikes have more than doubled in 2025 compared to the previous year. 

‘While new areas of operation in Latin America have captured significant public attention, US strikes have been concentrated in Yemen and Somalia.

‘In Yemen, these strikes have primarily targeted Houthi militants, with strikes in Somalia focused on al-Shabaab and Islamic State Somalia.’ 

Under the Trump administration, the US military has already carried out more air strikes than in the entire four years of Joe Biden’s presidency, according to ACLED. Estimated fatalities from these strikes have risen from at least 219 in 2024 to over 850 last year, the group has found.

Trump has repeatedly hailed US military interventions across the world, although the impact has been called into question on several occasions.  

After the strike in Venezuela, he said that US forces had hit a ‘dock area’ linked to alleged drug boats, leading to a ‘major explosion’. 

A drone was used in the operation, which was carried out at an unspecified time earlier this month, according to CNN and the New York Times.  

Trump also hailed ‘powerful and deadly’ US strikes unleashed on Christmas Day against an ISIS branch in Nigeria.  

The US president said ‘perfect’ hits had been carried out against ‘ISIS terrorist scum’ in the operation targeting camps run by the group.

The Pentagon reported that an ‘initial assessment’ had suggested ‘multiple’ fatalities after the strikes in Sokoto state.

Trump said that the group had been ‘targeting and viciously killing, primarily, innocent Christians.’   

The claim, escalated to ‘genocide’ by some figures in the US, is thrown into question by commentators who say Nigeria is afflicted by a complex set of tensions, where both Christians and Muslims are being killed.

The commander-in-chief also lauded US military might after the strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities during the summer, saying they had been ‘completely and totally obliterated.’ 

‘We’ll continue to kill terrorists’

But Iran claimed its program ‘can’t be destroyed by bombing’ while the BBC’s security analyst Gordon Corera said ‘the truth is likely to be somewhere in the middle’ of both narratives. 

A leaked US intelligence report, hotly disputed by Trump, assessed that the regime’s program was only set back by a matter of months.

In another high-profile operation, US Central Command claimed to have killed Abdallah Makki Muslih al-Rifai, ISIS’s global second in command, in an air strike carried out on March 13 in Anbar Province, Iraq.

The terror leader and another ISIS operative were said to have been found dead at the explosion site wearing suicide vests.

US Centcom commander Michael Erik Kurilla emphasised that ‘we will continue to kill terrorists and dismantle their organisations that threaten our homeland and US allied and partner personnel.’

‘Long-term strategy’

Peter Layton, a military aviation analyst at the Griffith Asia Institute and a former Royal Australian Air Force officer, told Metro: ‘The first year of the second Trump administration has certainly featured a new emphasis on air strikes compared to the previous Biden administration. 

‘It is noticeable that the air strikes are frequent, more diverse in being across multiple countries and that the rate of air strikes is increasing.  

‘Most seem directed against non-state groups with two main current focuses: ISIL [Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant] and drug smugglers.’ 

Layton assesses that the success of the air strikes was difficult to gauge, but that they appear to be part of a long-term trend.  

‘The attacks have been quite different,’ he said.

‘Drones have been used in Somalia, which is possible as the US has nearby airbases, including at Djibouti. In Nigeria, the single attack involved multiple Tomahawk cruise missiles fired from a US Navy warship.’

A common thread is the targeting of ISIS, especially after the killing of two US soldiers and an American civilian interpreter in Palmyra, Syria, by a gunman belonging to the terror group on December 13.

‘The strikes in Nigeria, the recent Somalia attacks and the attacks in Syria have all been against ISIL,’ Layton said.

‘It’s notable that these have been roughly coordinated in time, in a series of rolling strikes against ISIL across three countries.

‘The intent appears to send a public message after the killing of two US servicemen in Syria; the strikes have a performative, theatrical function.

‘More strategically, they aim to keep ISIL off-balance after the terrorist attack in Australia and thwarted ones in Europe and Turkey.’

Layton judges that the strategic intent is most likely to deter ISIS from future terrorist acts by fear of retribution.

‘In using air strikes for this there is little risk to American military personnel, the targeted groups and countries appear ineffectual, and the attacks can be easily repeated,’ he said.

‘They signal America remains attracted to intervening militarily globally, at least against non-state actors and weak states.

‘In 2026, this long-term trend seems likely to continue, albeit with a stress on using air strikes.’ 

Video shared by the US Department of War yesterday showed strikes on two vessels said to be operated by ‘designated terrorist organisations’ and to be engaged in ‘narco-trafficking.’

Three ‘narco-terrorists’ were killed in the first boat and two in the second, according to the department.  

Trump is currently also engaged in talks over a possible peace deal between Ukraine and Russia.

Kyiv is reportedly discussing the possibility of hosting US troops on its soil as part of the deal.  

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