Mogadishu, Somalia
U.S. troops are back: President Biden approved a Pentagon request this week to re-deploy Special Operations forces to Somalia, reversing President Trump’s decision to withdraw them last year. Some 750 U.S. troops had been stationed in the region to combat al-Shabaab, an Islamist terrorist group affiliated with al Qaida. An administration official said the group has “only grown stronger” since the U.S.’s “abrupt and sudden” withdrawal. A smaller deployment of fewer than 500 American soldiers will now be authorized to seek out al-Shabaab leaders who have plotted attacks outside Somalia’s borders. The group was accused in a 2020 attack on an American air base in Manda Bay, Kenya, that killed three Americans. It also controls chunks of Somali territory, where it rules on court cases and collects taxes.