Trump continues U.S. use of special forces

President continues Obama’s minimalpresence approach.

MARA, CHAD — From Yemen to Syria to here in Central Africa, the Trump administration is relying on Special Operations forces to intensify its promised fight against the Islamic State group and other terrorist groups as senior officials embrace an Obama-era strategy to minimize the U.S. military’s footprint overseas.

In Africa, President Donald Trump is expected to soon approve a Pentagon proposal to remove constraints on Special Operations airstrikes and raids in parts of Somalia to target suspected militants with al-Shabab, an extremist group linked to al-Qaida. Critics say that the change — in one of the few rejections of President Barack Obama’s guidelines for the elite forces — would bypass rules that seek to prevent civilian deaths from drone attacks and commando operations.

But in their two months in office, Trump officials have shown few other signs that they want to back away from Obama’s strategy to train, equip and otherwise support indigenous armies and security forces to fight their own wars instead of having to deploy large U.S. forces to far-flung hot spots.

“Africans are at war; we’re not,” said Col. Kelly Smith, 4 7, a G r e e n B e r e t c o mmander who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan and was a director of a counterterrorism exercise in Chad this month involving about 2,000 African and Western troops and trainers. “But we have a strategic interest in the success of partners.”

Trump came to office without a clearly articulated phi- losophy for using the military to fight terrorist groups. He had promised to be more aggressive in taking on the Islamic State — even suggesting during the presidential campaign that he had a secret plan — but had also signaled a desire to rein in the notion of the United States as the world’s peacekeeper and claimed at various points to have opposed the ground invasion of Iraq.

Now, surrounded by generals who have been at the center of a decadelong shift to rely on Special Operations forces to project power without the risks and costs of large ground wars, he is choosing to maintain the same approach but giving the Pentagon more latitude.

That leeway carries its own perils. Last week, the Pentagon went to unusual lengths to defend an airstrike in Syria that U.S. officials said killed dozens of al-Qaida operatives at a meeting place — and not civilians at a mosque, as activists and local residents maintain.

It was yet another example of the mixed success Trump’s forays with special operators have had so far. An ill-fated raid in January by the Navy’s SEAL Team 6 against al-Qaida fighters in Yemen marred the president’s first counterterrorism mission, five days after he became commander in chief. In Mosul, however, Special Operations advisers are the U.S. troops closest to the fight in Iraq to oust the Islamic State group from its stronghold there. That is also likely to be the case in the impending battle to reclaim Raqqa in eastern Syria.

Trump is largely relying on the policies of his two immediate predecessors, Obama and President George W. Bush, who were also great advocates of Special Operations forces. On Obama’s orders, SEAL Team 6 com- mandos killed Osama bin Laden in his hideout in Pakistan in 2011.

But Trump seems to have taken that appreciation and reliance to another level. He appointed a retired Marine Corps general, Jim Mattis, as defense secretary, and a three-star Army officer, Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, as his national securit y adviser. Both men have extensive exper i e nce wi t h S pec i a l Operations forces. And the National Security Council’s new senior director for counterterrorism, Christopher P. Costa, is a retired Special Forces intelligence officer.

Sharing an unusual window into the private conversations between Trump and his senior commanders, Army Gen. Tony Thomas, the head of the military’s Special Operations Command, said the president had made clear his urgent priority for counterterrorism missions conducted by the military’s elite forces during a visit to military headquarters in Tampa, Florida, last month.

In Africa, about one-third of the nearly 6,000 overall troops are Special Operations forces. The only permanent U.S. installation on the continent is Camp Lemonnier, a sprawling base of 4,000 U.S. service members and civilians in Djibouti that serves as a hub for counterterrorism operations and training. The U.S. Air Force flies surveillance drones from small bases in Niger and Cameroon.

The Pentagon has allo - cated about $250 million over two years to help train the armies and security forces of North, Central and West African countries.

But U.S. aid and training alone — along with occasional secret unilateral strikes — will not be enough to defeat groups like al-Qaida, Boko Haram and the Islamic State, officials say.