President Donald Trump on Saturday said he ordered military airstrikes in Somalia against the Islamic State or ISIS, which were aimed at a terrorist attack organizer and others from the terrorist group.

 At least 37 civilians were killed and 212 were injured in an explosion at a popular beach restaurant in the Somali capital late on Friday, the health minister said, an attack the government blamed on militant Islamist group al Shabaab.

Ali Haji told a press conference that 11 of those injured in the attack in Mogadishu were in a critical condition.

It was the deadliest attack in the Horn of Africa country since twin car bombs detonated near a busy market intersection in October 2022, killing at least 100 people and wounding 300 others.

Federal prosecutors have charged 47 Somali Muslim immigrants in Minnesota for skimming $250 million from a coronavirus relief program meant to help feed needy children.

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland’s office is calling the case the “largest pandemic relief fraud scheme charged to date.”

“Today’s indictments describe an egregious plot to steal public funds meant to care for children in need in what amounts to the largest pandemic relief fraud scheme yet,” said FBI Director Christopher Wray in a Department of Justice (DOJ) press release:

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) is the latest Democratic member to be targeted with a censure resolution as she faces accusations of “treasonous statements” over the weekend related to Somalia.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) introduced the resolution on the House floor on Thursday to reprimand Omar over remarks she made at an event in Minnesota, accusing Omar of violating her oath of office by putting the interests of Somalis over the United States.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday called for "Squad" member Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., to be expelled from Congress, have her citizenship revoked, and deported from the country over a speech she gave which critics alleged Omar put the interests of Somalis over Americans. 

The clip of Omar’s Jan. 27 speech, which went viral this week, appeared to show the Somali-born congresswoman assuring her constituents that she would use her influence to ensure the breakaway Republic of Somaliland would not enter a sea-access deal with Ethiopia. 

Conservative calls to deport Representative Ilhan Omar over comments she purportedly made about Somalia have no legal merit, experts tell Newsweek.

The progressive Democrat, a Somali American and Muslim, has been under fire for remarks she allegedly made to Somali American constituents that have been viewed over 7 million times on X. Omar, a Somali American and Muslim, seemed to address a deal struck by Somalia's breakaway region of Somaliland with landlocked Ethiopia to give it access to the sea.

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) sparked calls for her removal from Congress over the weekend after she made remarks at an event in Minnesota in which she told a group of Somalis that she is advocating for Somalia — where she was born and raised during her early years — while serving in the U.S. Congress.

Two US Navy sailors were reported missing while conducting operations Thursday off the coast of Somalia, according to US Central Command.

Search and rescue operations are ongoing to locate the sailors, Central Command said in a Friday statement.

The brief statement gave no additional information about what the sailors had been doing when they went missing other than to say they were “forward-deployed” to the US Navy’s 5th Fleet area of operations and were “supporting a wide variety of missions.”

The Somali armed Islamist group al-Shabab has seized a United Nations helicopter, along with about eight people, both passengers and crew, local sources have told the BBC.

The helicopter landed in territory controlled by the group in central Somalia.

Some reports said it had been forced to make an emergency landing, while others said the landing was a mistake.

Al-Shabab controls large parts of southern and central Somalia.

The group is affiliated to al-Qaeda and has waged a brutal insurgency for nearly 20 years.