Biden Approves Plan to Redeploy Several Hundred Ground Forces Into Somalia

WASHINGTON — President Biden has signed an order authorizing the military to once again deploy hundreds of Special Operations forces inside Somalia — largely reversing the decision by President Donald J. Trump to withdraw nearly all 700 ground troops who had been stationed there, according to four officials familiar with the matter.

In addition, Mr. Biden has approved a Pentagon request for standing authority to target about a dozen suspected leaders of Al Shabab, the Somali terrorist group that is affiliated with Al Qaeda, three of the officials said. Since Mr. Biden took office, airstrikes have largely been limited to those meant to defend partner forces facing an immediate threat.

Together, the decisions by Mr. Biden, described by the officials on the condition of anonymity, will revive an open-ended American counterterrorism operation that has amounted to a slow-burn war through three administrations. The move stands in contrast to his decision last year to pull American forces from Afghanistan, saying that “it is time to end the forever war.”

Mr. Biden signed off on the proposal by Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III in early May, officials said. In a statement, Adrienne Watson, the National Security Council spokeswoman, acknowledged the move, saying it would enable “a more effective fight against Al Shabab.”
“The decision to reintroduce a persistent presence was made to maximize the safety and effectiveness of our forces and enable them to provide more efficient support to our partners,” she said.

Ms. Watson did not indicate the number of troops the military would deploy. But two people familiar with the matter said the figure would be capped at around 450. That will replace a system in which the U.S. troops training and advising Somali and African Union forces have made short stays since Mr. Trump issued what Ms. Watson described as a “precipitous decision to withdraw.”

In particular, the official said, targeting a small leadership cadre — especially people who are suspected of playing roles in developing plots outside Somalia’s borders or having special skills — is aimed at curtailing “the threat to a level that is tolerable.”

Asked to square the return to heavier engagement in Somalia with the American withdrawal from Afghanistan last year, following through on a deal Mr. Trump had made with the Taliban, the senior administration official argued that the two countries presented significantly different complexities.
For one, the official said, the Taliban have not expressed an intention of attacking the United States, and other militant groups in Afghanistan do not control significant enclaves of territory from which to operate and plan.

Given that Al Shabab appears to pose a more significant threat, the administration concluded that more direct engagement in Somalia made sense, the official said. The strategy would focus on disrupting a few Shabab leaders who are deemed a direct peril to “us, and our interests and our allies,” and maintaining “very carefully cabined presence on the ground to be able to work with our partners.”

Intelligence officials estimate that Al Shabab has about 5,000 to 10,000 members; the group, which formally pledged allegiance to Al Qaeda in 2012, has sought to impose its extremist version of Islam on the chaotic Horn of Africa country.

While Al Shabab mostly fights inside Somalia and only occasionally attacks neighboring countries, some members are said to harbor ambitions to strike the United States. In December 2020, prosecutors in Manhattan charged an accused Shabab operative from Kenya with plotting a Sept. 11-style attack on an American city. He had been arrested in the Philippines as he trained to fly planes.

Mr. Biden’s decision followed months of interagency deliberations led by the White House’s top counterterrorism adviser, Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall, over whether to accept the Pentagon plan, maintain the status quo or further reduce engagement in Somalia.

In evaluating those options, Ms. Sherwood-Randall and other top security officials visited Somalia and nearby Kenya and Djibouti, both of which host American forces, in October.

The administration’s deliberations about whether and how to more robustly go back into Somalia have been complicated by political chaos there, as factions in its fledgling government fought each other and elections were delayed. But Somalia recently elected a new parliament, and over the weekend, leaders selected a new president, deciding to return to power Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, who led the country from 2012 to 2017.
For months, American commanders have warned that the short-term training missions that U.S. Special Operations forces have conducted in Somalia since Mr. Trump withdrew most American troops in January 2021 have not worked well. The morale and capacity of the partner units have been eroding, they say.

Of each eight-week cycle, the senior administration official said, American trainers spend about three unengaged with partner forces because the Americans were either not in Somalia or focused on transit — and the travel in and out was the most dangerous part. Other officials have also characterized the system of rotating in and out, rather than being persistently deployed there, as expensive and inefficient.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/16/us/politics/biden-military-somalia.html

Posted a thread about US congress passing a bill to declare war on Africa last week but people thought it’s a joke.

Well, this is the first step in many. Full invasion in Somalia next.

Then the next deployment would be west Africa after the CIA switch up Boko Haram and the gang of CIA funded Islamists in the region, lol. And another full invasion.

It’s going to be a fun decade for Americophiles living on the continent. Pray for rain!

Black hawk down comes to mind.

But the present crop of asslicking Africans can't pull that feat again.

Evil usa spreading wars

WAR IS FREEDOM
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH
SLAVERY IS FREEDOM.

George Orwell, 1984.

Young Africans who have failed to learn African history will never know that Russia’s Putin, here pictured alongside Zimbabwe and Mozambique’s freedom fighters Emmerson Mnangagwa and Samora Machel respectively, was giving African rebel leaders liberation strategies against their colonial aggressors.

Putin was on the ground in Africa for four good years, helping our fathers fight against colonialism and external aggressions from the Western power you now passionately love.

Today, your CNN is brainwashing you to describe your liberators as dictators. You do not know that you are now a free African, thanks to Putin, Castro, and a few others

Another "Black hawk down" loading?

AldrichAmes:
Posted a thread about US congress passing a bill to declare war on Africa last week but people thought it’s a joke.

Well, this is the first step in many. Full invasion in Somalia next.

Then the next deployment would be west Africa after the CIA switch up Boko Haram and the gang of CIA funded Islamists in the region, lol. And another full invasion.

It’s going to be a fun decade for Americophiles living on the continent. Pray for rain!

Link to thread, please..

paafin:


Link to thread, please..

Link is in the OP.

You will never see

VictorUSA

and Igbofam here,

Slavery runs in their blood.

And Seun will never move this to front page, they love their slavery so much.

Doing what they have always been doing.

I don't think America will engage in any combat operations. They are there for training and advisory. Unless they want a repeat of black hawk down. Too many people in Somalia have weapons now compared to 1993

VictorUSA Igbofam BritishNaija.

Come defend your slave masters!! Such a pity!!

History555:
I don't think America will engage in any combat operations. They are there for training and advisory. Unless they want a repeat of black hawk down. Too many people in Somalia have weapons now compared to 1993

Can't they train in their country?

tamdun:

Can't they train in their country?

If they want the Us to stay out of things, the leaders should stop begging the US for help. Here’s your own president Buhari begging the US for help: https://www.nairaland.com/7129073/train-abduction-negotiations-deadlocked-fg

DerrickzB:
VictorUSA Igbofam BritishNaija.

Come defend your slave masters!! Such a pity!!

Defend what? What is the issue with America being in Somalia? Before American Forces will be in Somalia, I'm very sure the Goverment of Somalia made approval of it.

The US wants to recruit Somali pirates to harass the commercial boats shuttling between Africa and China _ Russia

International piracy by the US loading!

BritishNaija:


Defend what? What is the issue with America being in Somalia? Before American Forces will be in Somalia, I'm very sure the Goverment of Somalia made approval of it.

We know the america pattern, they come preaching the good gospel and boom they start seeking to make the government their puppet, and once you disagree they stage a coup to change regime!! Even you know this, they are snakes not to be trusted!!

DerrickzB:


We know the america pattern, they come preaching the good gospel and boom they start seeking to make the government their puppet, and once you disagree they stage a coup to change regime!! Even you know this, they are snakes not to be trusted!!

its Somalia president that begged the USA to intervene

omis1:
its Somalia president that begged the USA to intervene

Quick one, who is Somalia president?

DerrickzB:


We know the america pattern, they come preaching the good gospel and boom they start seeking to make the government their puppet, and once you disagree they stage a coup to change regime!! Even you know this, they are snakes not to be trusted!!

If you know the group of terrorist in Somalia, you will not spit the above. And you should be glad American Soldiers are returning there. Is there anything Somalia have to offer if i might ask? That is one dead Country for a long time.

BritishNaija:


If you know the group of terrorist in Somalia, you will not spit the above. And you should be glad American Soldiers are returning there. Is there anything Somalia have to offer if i might ask? That is one dead Country for a long time.

It this what you will coin out when USA invade Nigeria.. Pathetic.

Kingsnairaland:


It this what you will coin out when USA invade Nigeria.. Pathetic.

Don't quote me with dumb posts. In your dreams US is invading Nigeria.

Elvictor:
You will never see

VictorUSA

and Igbofam here,

Slavery runs in their blood.

And Seun will never move this to front page, they love their slavery so much.

I'm ashamed of those people

BritishNaija:


If you know the group of terrorist in Somalia, you will not spit the above. And you should be glad American Soldiers are returning there. Is there anything Somalia have to offer if i might ask? That is one dead Country for a long time.

Yes. As we have Ukrainian terrorist and Nazis.
Somalia should roast them. Useless American pigs

Dvdpity:

Yes. As we have Ukrainian terrorist and Nazis.
Somalia should roast them. Useless American pigs

Lolz.

When are they deploying to ukriane

1stGenAmerican:


If they want the Us to stay out of things, the leaders should stop begging the US for help. Here’s your own president Buhari begging the US for help: https://www.nairaland.com/7129073/train-abduction-negotiations-deadlocked-fg

US has no help to give. They are crooks and bandits

useni1:
US has no help to give. They are crooks and bandits

Talking about crooks ?
The first things the U.S. secured in Iraq when they invaded that country were oil wells

panafrican:

Talking about crooks ?
The first things the U.S. secured in Iraq when they invaded that country were oil wells

they are not a oil producing country but they go around oil
Producing countries destabilize them and while they are busy killing each other they take their oil and gold

leofab:
When are they deploying to ukriane

in 1993, america tried to invade somali, but the brave local african soldiers repulsed them , they shot down an american airforce plane, and then they mauled and paraded the american soldiers' bodies. this is called "black hawk down ".


be proud, negros, this is your only time triumphing over whites. chinese respect you.