US Africa Command (AFRICOM) said in a press release last week that it launched an airstrike in Somalia on August 15.
According to the command, the strike was conducted in support of the US-backed Mogadishu-based government, whose forces were engaged with al-Shabaab fighters on the ground. The strike was launched about 150 miles northeast of Mogadishu.
AFRICOM claimed that its “initial assessment” found five al-Shabaab fighters were killed and no civilians were harmed. But the Pentagon is notorious for undercounting civilian casualties, especially in Somalia, where its operations are shrouded in secrecy.
The incident marks the first airstrike reported by AFRICOM in Somalia since July 20. US airstrikes in Somalia escalated toward the end of 2022 as the US-backed government launched a ground offensive against al-Shabaab.
The US military hypes the threat of al-Shabaab due to its size and al-Qaeda affiliation, but it’s widely believed the group does not have ambitions outside of Somalia.
In its press release, AFRICOM described al-Shabaab as “the largest and most kinetically active al-Qaeda network in the world and has proved both its will and capability to attack partner and US forces and threaten US security interests.”
Al-Shabaab was born out of a US-backed Ethiopian invasion in 2006 that toppled the Islamic Courts Union, a coalition of Muslim groups who briefly held power in Mogadishu after ousting CIA-backed warlords.
Al-Shabaab was the radical offshoot of the Islamic Courts Union. The group’s first recorded attack was in 2007, and it wasn’t until 2012 that al-Shabaab pledged loyalty to al-Qaeda after years of fighting the US and its proxies.
In other news, Saudi border guards massacred hundreds of Ethiopian asylum seekers. Looks like other countries have other ways of stopping the flow of illegals. Saudi is an ally of Wash. but not a peep from D.C. https://www.foxnews.com/world/saudi-border-guards-kill-possibly-hundreds-ethiopian-migrants-arriving-yemen-rights-group-says
AFRICOM described al-Shabaab as “the largest and most kinetically active al-Qaeda network in the world and has proved both its will and capability to attack partner and US forces and threaten US security interests.”
“Partner” and “US security interests” are essentially unlimited words and phrases, in this context. The US has dozens, if not hundreds, of military “partners” around the globe. And “US security interests” mean anything that happens anywhere from Taskent to Timbuktu, and everywhere else on Earth (and in outer space, cyber space, etc) too. “US forces” I think were perhaps “attacked” only within Somalia, and maybe also once in Kenya, where the various “partners” armed by the US and sent to kill al-Shabaab members are trained by the “US forces” at one of their horrid “School of the Americas” African knockoffs.
US air strike has a familiar ring to it.
Similar to our “partners” in Syria. None of those partners are part of the Internationally recognized sovereign government of Syria but we really don’t seem to be concerned about the unbelievable hypocrisy we display on a daily basis.
The Empire Of Lies is good at killing 3rd Worlders without an organized army, navy or air force.
Indeed, they’ve virtually taken punching down subterranean 🙂
Air strike? What was the cost to the US tax payer for the killing of 5 al-Shabaab Fighters?
I read the headline and took a wild guess and thought that all 5 killed were high ranking officials and of course no civilians were killed. I was wrong. They were just “fighters”. And then I wondered if there were any goat herders in the region.
“US Launches Airstrike in Somalia, Claims 5 al-Shabaab Fighters Killed – AFRICOM says the strike was conducted on August 15”
Joey Biden can’t win in Afghanistan or Ukraine so he is killing aboriginal tribal people who have few if any weapons.
Sad that America is an evil tyrannical country.
Airstrikes on a country where no war has been declared by Congress.
SOP for almost 80 years now — our Congress has not declared war since WW2.
WTF is the US still involved in Somalia?
We’ll always have Somalia.
How many sheep? Shepards? Wedding guests? Funeral guests? …..