US Africa Command on Thursday said that it launched an airstrike in Somalia in support of Mogadishu-based government forces who were engaged with al-Shabaab on the ground.
AFRICOM said the strike was launched in a remote area about 9 miles south of the village of Galcad in Somalia’s central Galguduud region, near the border of the Middle Shabelle region. The area is about 150 miles northeast of Mogadishu.
The command said its “initial assessment” found the strike killed five al-Shabaab fighters and claimed no civilians were harmed, but the Pentagon is notorious for undercounting civilian casualties, especially in Somalia.
AFRICOM did not say what day the strike was launched, but the Mogadishu-based government said its ground forces, the Somali National Army, launched a joint military operation with the US in the same area on Wednesday. The Somali Information Ministry claimed 100 al-Shabaab fighters were killed in the fighting.
“In that operation, nearly 100 members of the Khawarij (al-Shabaab), including leaders, were killed, while the place where they were plotting conspiracies was destroyed,” the Somali Information Ministry said, according to Turkey’s Anadolu Agency.
The last known US airstrikes in Somalia were reported by AFRICOM on July 9, when the command said 10 al-Shabaab fighters were killed in three separate strikes. Before that, AFRICOM reported a strike on June 2. However, the monitoring group Airwars has said suspected US airstrikes hit al-Shabaab fighters in Somalia on June 11 and June 16, suggesting AFRICOM is not reporting all US bombings in the country.
The US escalated airstrikes in Somalia after President Biden ordered the deployment of up to 500 troops to the country in May 2022. The US-backed government launched an offensive against al-Shabaab in September of last year, leading to heavy fighting on the ground and more US airstrikes.
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. 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, including a US-backed Ethiopian invasion that was launched in 2006.
Full disclosure: I don’t really want to know about this because it makes it difficult for me to claim moral superiority and exceptionalism. Additionally, I only read those articles to enjoy reading this paragraph: “The command said its ‘initial assessment’ found the strike killed five al-Shabaab fighters and claimed no civilians were harmed…” It’s a bit of dark comedy or dramady. Everything else is like: blah, blah, blah, blah, and our bombs are smart, unlike those “DIRTY RUSSIANS.” I know… That’s terrible. I know. I’m terrible. I admit it. But, am I as terrible as “the command” that’s actually ordering the killing of the actual people? (Sarcasm alert)
Can’t win against Russia so beat up on aboriginal tribal people with no weapons that can fight back!
It’s like pistol whipping a blind kid, but that is the only win the American military or NATO is capable of.
Amen, brother. Did I mention how “exceptionally smart” are our “smart bombs?” …Okay, well I feel compelled to remind you. They are so smart that I’m confident that after further “initial assessment” by “the command” those al-Shabaab “fighters” will be upgraded to mostly “leaders and senior leaders.” (Sarcasm alert)
5 dead via a air strike that is pushing 7 figures in cost.
The efficiency eith tax dollars we display….
oh here’s a good one = in a massive show of support congress rejected legislation that would terminate national emergency powers allowing washington to test biological weapons on US citizens
https://thegrayzone.com/2023/07/20/resolutions-emergency-iraq-syria-libya-yemen/
Love it! Gimme more! (Sarcasm)
Is this how the Obama crew thought this war go in 2014 when they overthrew Porochenko and unleashed the Russophobic Nazis on their own neighbors…….????? Out of ammo, out of planes, out of a navy it looks as if fully trained troops are running low and towards Europe also. Wasn’t the Afghan route fiasco enough. or did some think that some new debacle would create some magic aura of invincibility around America and her NATO vassals. Lets not forget some of the other recent embarrassments
“US Africa Command”
That alone should make one sick. Hate to do the whataboutism but imagine if ……..
How many sheep?
WAR:
It doesn’t matter whether you’re talking about the costs of Washington’s major conflicts of this century and the global war on terror that went with it ($8 trillion dollars through 2022); the cost in lives lost, whether “direct war deaths” (at least 937,000, of which an estimated 387,000 were civilians) or “indirect” ones (3.6-3.7 million); the number of people “displaced” by Washington’s seemingly never-ending combat operations in these years (an estimated 38 million); or even the staggering number of countries in which, since September 11, 2001. (excerpt) Tom Dispatch article Andrea Mazzarino, Whose War Was That Anyway?
In the name of national security a great evil has been unleashed on the world. By those in Washington and the rest of the West who have profit motives driving their war on terror decisions.