U.S sends 40 troops to train Somalia forces
MOGADISHU, SOMALIA — The U.S. military is sending dozens of regular troops to Somalia in the largest such deployment to the Horn of Africa country in roughly two decades.
The United States pulled out of Somalia after 1993, when two U.S. helicopters were shot down in the capital, Mogadishu, and bodies of American soldiers were dragged through the streets. Even now, Somalia’s fragile central government is struggling to assert itself after the nationwide chaos that began with the fall of dictator Siad Barre in 1991.
The U.S. Africa Command on Friday said the new deployment is for logistics training of Somalia’s army, which is battling the extrem- ist group al-Shabab. About 40 troops are taking part.
The U.S. in recent years has sent a small number of special operations forces and counter-terror advisers to Somalia. President Donald Trump recently approved an expanded military role there that includes carrying out more aggressive airstrikes against al-Shabab.
The country’s recently elected Somali-American president, Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, last week declared a new offensive against the extremist group, which has claimed responsibility for major attacks in East Africa, including one in April 2015 at neighbor- ing Kenya’s Garissa University that killed 148 people.
Al-Shabab also caused alarm in February 2016 when it claimed responsibility for the bombing of an airliner that made an emergency landing with a gaping hole in its fuselage shortly after taking off from Mogadishu.
The extremist group this week announced that its recent escalation of deadly attacks in Mogadishu and elsewhere is in “doubled response” to Trump’s approval of the expanded U.S. military effort. On Sunday, Somalia’s new military chief survived a suicide car bomb attack following his swearing-in, while 13 peo- ple were killed. A day later, a suicide bombing at a mili- tary academy in Mogadishu killed at least five soldiers.
Al-Shabab was chased out of Mogadishu several years ago by national and African Union multinational forces but still controls some rural areas. Meanwhile, fighters pledging allegiance to the Islamic State have emerged in the northern part of the country.
Pressure is growing on Somalia’s army to assume full security for the country as the 22,000-strong African Union force plans to leave by the end of 2020. “If this departure begins prior to Somalia having capable secu- rity forces, large portions of Somalia are at risk of returning to al-Shabab control or potentially allowing ISIS to gain a stronger foothold...,” Commander Gen. Thomas Waldhauser said.