WASHINGTON – President Biden has signed an order allowing the military to redeploy hundreds of special operations forces in Somalia – largely overturning President Donald J. Trump to withdraw almost all 700 ground troops that were stationed there, according to four officials familiar with the matter.
Mr Biden also approved a request from the Pentagon for permanent authority to target about a dozen suspected leaders of al-Shabab, an al-Qaeda-linked Somali terrorist group, three officials said. Since Mr Biden took office, air strikes have been largely limited to those designed to protect partner forces facing imminent threat.
Together, Mr Biden’s decisions, described by officials on condition of anonymity, will revive the US open-ended anti-terrorism operation, which has turned into a slow-burning war across three administrations. The move contrasts with his decision last year to withdraw US forces from Afghanistan, saying it was “time to end the eternal war”.
Mr Biden signed a proposal by Defense Minister Lloyd J. Austin III in early May, officials said. In a statement, Adrien Watson, a spokesman for the National Security Council, confirmed the move, saying it would allow for a “more effective fight against al-Shabab.”
“The decision to reintroduce a permanent presence was taken to maximize the security and effectiveness of our forces and allow them to provide more effective support to our partners,” she said.
Ms. Watson did not specify the number of troops to be deployed. But two people familiar with the matter said the figure would be limited to about 450. This will replace the system in which US troops to train and advise forces in Somalia and the African Union have taken a short break since Mr Trump issued what Ms Watson described as a “hasty decision to withdraw”.
The Biden administration’s strategy in Somalia is to try to reduce the threat from al-Shabab by suppressing its ability to plan and carry out complex operations, a senior administration official said. These include a deadly attack on a US air base in Manda Bay, Kenya, in January 2020.
In particular, the official said, targeting a small leadership group – especially people suspected of playing conspiracy roles outside Somalia or having special skills – aims to reduce “the threat to a level that is tolerable. “.
Asked to compare the return to a heavier engagement in Somalia with the US withdrawal from Afghanistan last year, following a deal Mr Trump made with the Taliban, a senior administration official said the two countries were significantly different.
On the one hand, the official said, the Taliban had not expressed an intention to attack the United States, and other militant groups in Afghanistan did not control significant enclaves of territory from which to act and plan.
Given that al-Shabab appears to pose a more significant threat, the administration concluded that more direct involvement in Somalia makes sense, the official said. The strategy will focus on destroying several Shabab leaders who are seen as a direct threat to “us, our interests and our allies” and maintaining a “very carefully coordinated presence on the ground so we can work with our partners”.
Intelligence officials estimate that al-Shabab has about 5,000 to 10,000 members; the group, which officially swore allegiance to al Qaeda in 2012, sought to impose its extremist version of Islam in the chaotic Horn of Africa.
While al-Shabab is fighting mostly in Somalia and only occasionally attacking neighboring countries, some members are said to have ambitions to strike at the United States. In December 2020, Manhattan prosecutors filed charges against an accused Shabab operative from Kenya for planning a 9/11 attack on a US city. He was arrested in the Philippines while training to fly airplanes.
Mr Biden’s decision followed months of interdepartmental discussions by White House Chief Counter-Terrorism Adviser Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall on whether to accept the Pentagon’s plan, maintain the status quo or further reduce engagement in Somalia.
In assessing these options, Ms. Sherwood-Randall and other senior security officials visited Somalia and nearby Kenya and Djibouti, which hosted US forces in October.
The administration’s debate over whether and how to return more decisively to Somalia has been complicated by the political chaos there, as factions in its new government are fighting each other and elections have been postponed. But Somalia recently elected a new parliament, and over the weekend leaders elected a new president, deciding to return Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, who led the country from 2012 to 2017.
Mr Mohamoud’s new senior official welcomed the Biden administration’s move.
They were both timely and a step in the right direction, as they coincided with “the swearing in of the newly elected president, who will plan his offensive against Al Shabab,” the official said.
For months, U.S. commanders have warned that short-term training missions conducted by U.S. special operations forces in Somalia since Mr. Trump withdrew most U.S. troops in January 2021 have not worked well. The morale and capacity of the partner units are eroded, they say.
Of each eight-week cycle, a senior administration official said, US trainers spent about three indifferent to partner forces because Americans were either not in Somalia or focused on transit – and traveling in and out is the most dangerous part. Other officials also describe the entry-exit rotation system, instead of being permanently located there, as expensive and inefficient.
“Our recurring commitment – also called commuting – has posed new challenges and risks for our troops,” said General Stephen J. Townsend, head of the Pentagon’s African Command, appeared before the Senate Armed Services Committee in March. “My assessment is that it is not effective.”
Intelligence officials have raised growing concerns about al-Shabab over the past few years as he expanded into Somalia. In his last year in office, the Obama administration saw al-Shabab as part of an armed conflict the United States resolved against the perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks.
It took only a few months for the Biden administration to review how the targeting rules worked for both the Trump and Obama administrations and work out their own. But although it has largely completed the proposed replacement, described as a hybrid between the two previous versions, final approval has been suspended amid competing national security policy issues.
The military, for its part, has tried to continue training, advising and supporting Somali and African Union forces without a permanent presence on the ground, but has gradually increased the length of shorter stays. During a visit to Somalia in February, General Townsend warned of the threat Al Shabab poses to the region.
“Al Shabab remains the largest, richest and deadliest branch of al Qaeda, responsible for the deaths of thousands of innocent people, including Americans,” he said. “Interrupting al-Shabab’s malicious intentions requires leadership from the Somalis and continued support from Djibouti, Kenya, the United States and other members of the international community.
Abdi Latif Dahir contributed to a report from Nairobi.
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