The U.S. Africa Command’s director of intelligence Navy Rear Adm. Heidi Berg announced AFRICOM’s concern’s over Al-Shabaab growing more inspired in targeting US counterterrorism actors in Somalia.
Its notable of the trend that Al-Shabaab, an Al-Qaeda offshoot based in Somalia growing more emboldened in laying siege on US troops supporting the weak Federal Government of Somalia’s troops.
According to Berg, Al-Shabaab has shifted its military strategy in the way its conducting attacks on the US CT-actors in the past couple of months. While he noted other violent extremists groups including ISIS-Somalia, Boko Haram and Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb exist in Africa and all have interests in attacking the US, he noted the rate at which the Somali-based Al-Shabaab is targeting US interests is growing steadily and is worrisome citing the group’s propaganda and public announcements are suggestive of Al-Qaeda’s preceding to the 9/11 attacks.
The Intelligence Director emphasized on AFRICOM’s assessments and reiterated of group’s sharpened capability and lethality that cannot be ruled out in terms of the ability to potentially threaten Western interests in Somalia and beyond.
He highlighted on the latest attacks in Jana Abdalle a couple of days ago that saw at least three Danab soldiers killed and one US service member injured. He also noted that Al-Shabaab in a number of attempted attacks has tried to stage attacks on Somalia US training base at Baledogle, in the southern Lower Shabelle region.
Al-Shabaab in January also targeted US forces at Manda Bay Airfield in Kenya in an ambush assault that resulted in the deaths of Army Spc. Henry Mayfield Jr., 23, and two U.S. Department of Defense contractors, Dustin Harrison, 47, and Bruce Triplett, 64.
Meghann Myers, the Africa special operations commander warns of Al-Qaeda’s growing influence in the Somalia’s based faction and raises concerns what the state of the security would be at a time troop withdrawal is already up in the area.
Notably, Strategic Intelligence (S.I.) has recorded close to 600 of violent Al-Shabaab incidents in this year so far (slightly more than 8 months) in East Africa. Al-Shabaab has involved ambushes, hit-and-run attacks, and IEDs, as preferred attack types against local and foreign troops.
AFRICOM spokesman Air Force Col. Chris Karns also highlighted concerns on Al-Shabaab interests in attacking US and its allies and acknowledged that Al-Qaeda’s roots are in Africa, they’re seeking sanctuary in Africa and that the network’s ambitions are much broader.
Karns warned US CT-actors that failure to exert pressure on these violent extremist organizations or allowing the African continent to become a safe haven for such terror groups means the US stares at the risk of repeating the past in the future.
The US has conducted more than 45 airstrikes in Somalia this year against violent extremist organizations, and conducted more than 60 in 2019.
