The Pentagon has issued a statement denying weekend reports that they are planning to scale back operations
in Somalia. Officials say they have no plans to cut back any of the
strikes they are carrying out in that nation and will continue to
support the Somali government.
After spending 2018 escalating airstrikes across Somalia, reports began
emerging on Friday tht the Pentagon was pushing to dial things back a
bit, on the grounds that they were running out of targets.
Now, Pentagon officials are saying those reports are untrue. Since most
US airstrikes in Somalia just hit groups of five or more people in areas
not controlled by the government, it seems there are still plenty of
targets.
That doesn’t mean it’s not true, however. The Pentagon had similarly
dismissed the idea of a drawdown in Afghanistan as a “rumor,” and it has
subsequently been confirmed that the administration is considering such
a drawdown after all.
Pentagon Dismisses Reports of Scaling Back Somalia Operations
Officials say no recent policy changes in Somalia
Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.
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