Trump relaxes combat rules that protect civilians
WASHINGTON — President Trump has relaxed some of the rules for preventing civilian casualties when the U.S. military carries out counterterrorism strikes in Somalia, laying the groundwork for an escalating campaign against Islamist militants in the Horn of Africa.
The decision, according to officials familiar with internal deliberations, gives commanders at the U.S. Africa Command greater latitude to carry out offensive air strikes and raids by ground troops against militants with the al Qaeda-linked Islamist group al-Shabab. That sets the stage for an intensified pace of combat there, while increasing the risk that U.S. forces could kill civilians.
Trump on Wednesday signed a directive declaring parts of Somalia an “area of active hostilities,” where warzone targeting rules will apply for at least 180 days, the officials said.
The New York Times had reported the Pentagon’s request for the expanded targeting authority on March 12. The Trump administration had no immediate comment about the rules change, but Gen. Thomas Waldhauser, the top officer at Africa Command, had publicly acknowledged he was seeking it at a news conference on March 24.
“It’s very important and very helpful for us to have little more flexibility, a little bit more timeliness, in terms of decision-making process,” Waldhauser said. “It allows us to prosecute targets in a more rapid fashion.”
Previously, to carry out an air strike or ground raid in Somalia, the military was generally required to follow standards that former President Barack Obama imposed in 2013 for counterterrorism strikes away from conventional war zones, like those in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Those rules, known as the Presidential Policy Guidance, required high-level, interagency vetting of proposed strikes. They also said the target must pose a threat to Americans and that there must be near-certainty that no civilian bystanders would die.
Under the new guidelines, Africa Command may treat Somalia under less-restrictive battlefield rules: Without interagency vetting, commanders may strike suspected al-Shabab fighters based only on their status as suspected members of the group, without any reason to think that the individual target poses a threat to Americans.
In addition, some civilian bystander deaths would be permitted if deemed necessary and proportionate. Trump’s decision to exempt much of Somalia from the 2013 rules follows a similar decision he made for parts of Yemen shortly after taking office.
The new directive for Somalia is another example of how the U.S. military is accelerating the ways it carries out combat missions under the Trump administration, reducing constraints on the use of force imposed by the Obama administration.