U.S. Commandos Advise Somalis in Fight Against Qaeda Branch

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A campaign in the Horn of Africa is now the most active element in the “forever wars” the United States has waged since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
A campaign in the Horn of Africa is now the most active element in the “forever wars” the United States has waged since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

BY: NEWYORK TIMES

 The promise and perils of America’s counterterrorism campaign were on full display at a remote training base in central Somalia.

It was graduation day for 346 recruits who would join an elite Somali commando unit trained by the State Department, advised by U.S. Special Operations forces, and backed by American air power.

Since last August, the unit, called Danab, has spearheaded a string of Somali army victories against Al Shabab, an Islamist terrorist group that is considered the deadliest of Al Qaeda’s global branches.

“We’re more dedicated than ever,” said Second Lt. Shukri Yusuf Ali, 24, who joined the unit two years ago as one of its few female members and was recently selected to attend the U.S. Army infantry training course at Fort Benning, Ga.

But sadness hung over the ceremony. Many of the recruits will be rushed to the front lines to backfill two Danab battalions decimated by a Shabab attack last month that left more than 100 Somali soldiers dead or injured.

Danab recruits demonstrating how they would capture a suicide bomber with three soldiers surrounding a man on the ground.
Danab recruits demonstrating how they would capture a suicide bomber. The unit has spearheaded a string of recent Somali army victories against Al Shabab.
Danab recruits demonstrating how they would capture a suicide bomber with three soldiers surrounding a man on the ground.
American Special Operations forces arriving at the base in Baledogle on a C-130 cargo plane.
American Special Operations forces arriving at the base in Baledogle on a C-130 cargo plane.
American Special Operations forces arriving at the base in Baledogle on a C-130 cargo plane.
A large group of Danab soldiers wearing combat uniforms sitting on the ground, with two women soldiers near the front.
Danab recruits attending their graduation ceremony. Many of them will be rushed directly to the front lines.
A large group of Danab soldiers wearing combat uniforms sitting on the ground, with two women soldiers near the front.
Americans sitting at computers monitoring video feeds from drones and surveillance aircraft following troops in the field, with an American flag in the background.
Americans monitoring video feeds from drones and surveillance aircraft following troops in the field. Somalia is also the center of a U.S. counterterrorism drone war.
Americans sitting at computers monitoring video feeds from drones and surveillance aircraft following troops in the field, with an American flag in the background.

I first reported from Somalia 30 years ago, when the U.S. military’s main mission there was to make the capital, Mogadishu, and outlying areas in a famine belt safe enough for aid deliveries, which had been interrupted by fighting among Somali factions.

The United States withdrew from the country after the “Black Hawk Down” episode of 1993, when Somali militia fighters killed 18 American service members in a blazing battle later depicted in books and Hollywood movies.

Now, nearly two decades after the rise of Al Shabab, Somalia is the most active front in the “forever wars” that the United States has been waging against Islamist extremists since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

The American fight against Al Shabab began in 2014 with a handful of military advisers and grew steadily to a 700-member training force that President Donald J. Trump withdrew just before leaving office in 2021. President Biden restored 450 of the troops last year to advise Somali soldiers fighting a Shabab insurgency that still controls much of the country’s south.

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