The operation is at least the second time US troops have landed in Somalia after a targeted strike, though no forces have been stationed there since shortly after the “Black Hawk Down” battle that left 18 Americans dead in 1993.
Defense Minister Abdulhakim Mohamoud Haji Faqi called on the US to carry out more airstrikes against the Al-Qaeda-linked militants, though he admitted that Somali officials appear to have launched Raven drones, body armor, night-vision gear, communications and heavy construction equipment, generators and surveillance systems.
Lt. Col. Paddy Ankunda, spokesman for the AU peacekeepers, welcomed the US assistance, saying it will help the force increase its surveillance abilities. “With the help of drones, we can locate insurgents in real time and deal with them decisively,” he said.
He also urged the US to increase its strikes against militants to destroy insurgents’ command and control capabilities. “If you eliminate Al-Shabab leadership, you are limiting their power to conduct successful military operations,” Ankunda said.
Even as the US says it will increase its focus on Al-Qaeda and its affiliates, Faqi said Al-Shabab fighters make an easier target than militants in Pakistan or Yemen, because Somalia has few mountainous areas that can serve as hideouts. He said he didn’t believe militants in Somalia are as experienced as in other parts of the world.
Still, US officials have said they believe that Al-Shabab counts hundreds of foreign fighters — including veterans of the Iraq and Pakistan-Afghanistan conflicts — among its ranks. A Somali soldier last month killed Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, a top Al-Qaeda operative and the mastermind behind the 1998 bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
Somalia hasn’t had a functioning government since 1991, a state of chaos that has allowed militancy and piracy to flourish. Faqi said the US pays the bulk of the army’s salary, along with Italy, and that his government gets logistical and capacity building supports from America. He said his government is grateful but needs even more help with hospitals, communication equipment and vehicles.
Faqi said Al-Shabab is in a “very, very difficult situation nowadays, financially, militarily and morally,” and that any sustained aerial strikes would further weaken the militants, who control large swaths of the country’s southern and central regions, including portions of the capital, Mogadishu, despite the success of the African Union offensive.
“There is mistrust among its top leaders, and between Somalis and foreigners. So I believe that new aerial strikes against its leaders will be another nail in the coffin of Al-Shabab,” he said.
