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The U.S. Africa Command on Friday authorized its second round of airstrikes in northern Somalia amid clashes between Al-Shabab fighters and the country’s armed forces, reports said.
The New York Times reported that the U.S. carried out two separate airstrikes last week to support the country’s Danab, the elite “American-trained Somali commando force.”
The first airstrike occurred on Tuesday in Galkayo, which was followed up by another strike on Friday near Qeycad. Cindi King, a spokeswoman for the Pentagon, said the U.S. is authorized “to conduct strikes in support of combatant commander-designated partner forces under the 2001 A.U.M.F.,” a reference to the Authorization for Use of Military Force, which was created in response to the attacks on 9/11.
“A battle-damage assessment is still pending due to the ongoing engagement between Al Shabaab and Somali forces, however the command’s initial assessment is that no civilians were injured or killed as a result of this strike,” she said.
The Times reported that the Pentagon was less than forthcoming about why it decided to act now after a six-month lull. The Biden administration has faced criticism in the past over its use of bombing campaigns in the country and on the Syria-Iraq border. A bipartisan group of senators issued a statement shortly after the strikes, saying, “It’s time to do away with questionable legal justifications claimed by one administration after the next for acts of war like this.”
We reported on 8 December, in an article titled, “TRUMP: PULL TROOPS FROM SOMALIA” that the former president instructed his commanders to withdraw about 700 troops from the country who were mainly training Somali forces.
Representative Ilhan Omar, who was born in Somalia, questioned the legality of the airstrikes and their effectiveness. The Intercept, citing a letter she penned to President Biden, reported that Omar said that the “increase in strikes corresponded with an almost doubling of terrorist attacks on civilians committed by Al-Shabaab.”
“It is critical that we realize we are not going to simply drone the Al-Shabaab problem to death and that any kinetic action is part of a broader strategy focused first and foremost on the security of Somali people and the stability of the Somali state,” she wrote in the letter.
The Defense Post reported that Biden changed Trump’s policy regarding airstrikes. Biden’s administration only approves airstrikes outside war when they target jihadists. The website said Trump gave the military “carte blanche” use of the action.
TREND FORECAST: While the United States claims it is winding down wars in some regions, it is ramping them up in other areas of the world… and will continue to do so, especially as the nation’s economy sinks deep into the Greatest Depression. As Gerald Celente has noted, when all else fails, they take you to war.
And, absent in the mainstream media—which has supported and promoted every U.S. war—is the fallacy that the airstrikes in Somalia are conducted “in support of combatant commander-designated partner forces under the 2001 A.U.M.F.,” a reference to the Authorization for Use of Military Force, which was created in response to the attacks on 9/11.
Indeed, it is a civil war in Somalia that has been raging for decades and it is of no threat to the citizens of the United States.