"Trouble Ahead in East Africa" Topic

"In March of this year at a training camp 120 miles north of Mogadishu, more than a hundred Al-Shabaab fighters were massing in preparation for an attack against soldiers from the African Union Mission to Somalia (AMISOM) and the American military advisors embedded with them. As the fighters congregated and prepared, their camp was targeted by multiple American aircraft and destroyed in a barrage of missile fire. This attack, described by the Defense Department as a "Defensive Fires," was one of the highest profile incidents in the United States' ongoing support of stability operations in Somalia and a strong signal of escalating involvement in the nine yearlong peacekeeping operation. The growing American operational involvement in AMISOM is occurring as two of the largest troop contributing countries, Kenya and Uganda, openly question whether to continue supporting the peacekeeping operation or exit and leave a tremendous security gap in in the fragile country. Taken together, both factors could lead to a future where American involvement in Somalia greatly resembles Iraq and Syria, with the United States military carrying out operations rather than merely supporting them.

Unlike the American led combat advising operations in Syria and Iraq, where there is consistent reporting of American forces "taking the gloves off" against Islamic State fighters, there is little official clarity or reporting on the growing involvement of U.S. military personnel in Somalia. The U.S. military has been involved in combat advising since 2007, but was only formally acknowledged by the Defense Department in 2014, at which time it was stressed that American service members were "not in combat." The origin of the Defense Department using "Defensive Fires" or similar terms against Al-Shabaab came last summer just before President Obama made his historic trip to East Africa. In that first "Defensive Fires," American aircraft attacked a large gathering of Al-Shabaab forces in the southern Somali city of Barawe…"
Full article here
link

Amicalement
Armand

No mention my good friend!. (smile)

Amicalement
Armand