Is Somalia the Pentagon’s new ‘endless war’?
- There have been at least 20 US strikes against militants in Somalia this year
- Despite air strikes, al-Shabab appears to be a growing threat
The Pentagon has been issuing near daily announcements of new strikes against the Islamic militants of al-Shabab in Somalia, seemingly without affecting the al-Qaeda affiliate’s ability to destabilise the country, in what is looking like a new “endless war” for the United States.
The Trump administration’s plans to reduce its military presence in Africa while re-centering its efforts toward two key strategic competitors – China and Russia – are coming at the expense of French-led operations against jihadists in the Sahel region.
So far, however, the war of attrition against al-Shabab has continued unabated.
“Al-Shabab is one of the biggest threats on the continent; they have aspirations to attack the (US) homeland,” General Roger Cloutier, commander of US land forces in Africa, recently declared.
“The danger that they pose has to be taken very, very seriously,” he said during a recent Pentagon conference call. “So we are focused hard on al-Shabab.”
The US Africa Command (Africom) on Friday announced an air strike on an al-Shabab target near the town of Qunyo Barrow, in southern Somalia. One al-Shabab fighter was killed, the statement said.
