The U.S. military has conducted the first airstrike against Al Shabaab terrorists in Somalia since President Trump granted new authorities and designated part of the country as an “area of active hostilities.” The mission is the latest evidence of a campaign against the group’s leadership on the part of the United States, the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), and the Somali government, which may actually be almost a year old already.

“U.S. forces, in cooperation with the Government of Somalia, are conducting operations against al-Shabaab in Somalia to degrade the al-Qaeda affiliate’s ability to recruit, train and plot external terror attacks throughout the region and in America,” an AFRICOM press release explained. “The group has cemented its control southern and central Somalia, they have used this area to plot and direct terror attacks, steal humanitarian aid, and to shelter other radical terrorists.

“The U.S. conducted this operation in coordination with its regional partners as a direct response to al-Shabaab actions, including recent attacks on Somali forces,” Pentagon Chief Spokesperson Dana White wrote in a separate statement. “This strike was conducted with the authorities approved by the President [Donald Trump] in March 2017, which allows the U.S. Department of Defense to conduct legal action against al-Shabaab within a geographically-defined area of active hostilities in support of partner force in Somalia.”

However, the nature of the operation and its location, combined with information from previous reports, suggests this may have been an attempt to target Al Shabaab leadership figures rather than just a punitive response. Regardless of how you measure the distance, 185 miles southwest of Mogadishu brings you relatively close to the town of Jilib, the terrorist group’s main stronghold in southern Somalia. In an Email to the War Zone, U.S. Army Captain Jennifer Drycz, an AFRICOM spokesperson, said the official distance between the two cities was 230 miles and that the strike was not technically in “the same vicinity” of Jilib.

The body count of just eight fighters points to a very limited precision attack rather than a broad strike on a militant encampment. In March 2016, the Pentagon acknowledged an attack on an Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula training camp in Yemen, which resulted in the deaths of dozens of terrorists. The obtuse target description may indicate U.S. forces missed the individuals they had intended to kill. Prior to the mission, there seemed to be an uptick in reports of surveillance missions and possible strikes in and around Jilib specifically stretching back nearly a year.

In August 2016, Al Shabaab burned three private cars outside Jilib, because the militants were convinced U.S. forces had installed tracking devices inside them. The group reportedly became suspicious after spotting surveillance drones circling the vehicles in question. Three months later, the terrorists released a video of a Tanzanian citizen confessing, possibly under duress, to being a spy for both the United States and Rwanda. Before his execution by firing squad, Issa James Mwaisige said he had received $4,000 to gather various types of information, including details about the group’s top leadership.