Article

2023-06-05 Africa Horn

US military kills senior Al-Shabaab commanders in Somalia

[Garowe] For the second time within a week, the US Africa Command has confirmed firing drones in al-Shabaab
...... the personification of Somali state failure...
villages within Somalia, with the latest killing of three al-Shabaab commanders in interior parts of Jubaland where the second phase of operations against the group is set to start.

According to the US Africa Command, in a statement, the army conducted the ~~Arclight~~ airstrike
<del>Arclight</del> airstrike

...KABOOM!...
following a request by the federal government of Somalia. The airstrike was conducted at Wayanta neighbourhoods in Jubaland, approximately 60 kilometers southwest of Kismayo
...a port city in the southern Lower Juba province of Somalia, at the extreme southern end of the country (always assuming Somalia can be called a country). It is the commercial capital of the autonomous Jubaland region....
The command’s initial assessment is that no civilians were maimed or killed, the command said, as an assurance of civilian protection as enshrined in international law. The US Africa Command has been playing an integral role in pursuing the al-Shabaab group within Somalia.

Posted by trailing wife 2023-06-05 00:00|| || Front Page|| [23 views ] Top
File under: al-Shabaab (AQ)

#1 Aside from honing the skills of the personnel involved in this, and ignoring the costs of maintaining the entire support/logistics/weapons system associated with wacking another Al-Shabaab "Commander", do you think this had ANY deterrent on Al-Shabaab cadre or in any way lessened their threat to the U.S.? This is meaningless, and a sample of the massively expensive wack-a-mole program for AFRICOM, who are pretending that Somalia has a functional government and that wacking people at their request does anything to serve actual American interests. We have been in Somalia since 2007 and, as a Google search reveals:
"How much aid does the US send to Somalia?
US Foreign Aid to Somalia

Since 2006, the U.S. has given more than $3 billion in humanitarian aid and $253 million in developmental aid since 2011. The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) allocated $411 million in December 2022 to respond to the drought and prevent famine in Somalia."Feb 28, 2023" Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. Making Somalia client state is just plain nuts!

Posted by NoMoreBS 2023-06-05 12:37|| 2023-06-05 12:37|| Front Page Top

#2 /\ Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. Making Somalia client state is just plain nuts!

Money down a rat hole, but it permits the Klingons to maintain a presence on the black continent. Does it serve a useful purpose? I can't think of one.

Posted by Besoeker 2023-06-05 12:42|| 2023-06-05 12:42|| Front Page Top

#3 ^ Easy location to liase with all the muzzist terror branch members who rotate thru the theater.

Posted by M. Murcek 2023-06-05 12:46|| 2023-06-05 12:46|| Front Page Top

#4 How many of these Muslim militant are not senior leaders? Do you get to be a big turban in al-Shabaab just by not being killed during basic training?

Posted by jpal 2023-06-05 15:44|| 2023-06-05 15:44|| Front Page Top

#5 As far as I can tell, jpal, emir just means leader. It can mean the leader of a platoon or the leader of an army without apparent differentiation.

This is not unique to Arabic — my mother was not sent to a concentration camp by the Nazis when she was seventeen because her Dutch papers showed her work category as “Leiterin” (leader) at a Montessori school. In German nomenclature, a school Leiter/Leiterin is the headmaster/headmistress, whereas in the Montessori program all the adults lead the students to work with learning materials on their own — learning as unstructured student-oriented self discovery rather than teacher-oriented structured lectures followed by homework and tests. The Nazi captain was terribly impressed by what he interpreted as my mother’s incredibly precocious achievement that he allowed her to be left in place until a later round of round-ups. She went into hiding immediately thereafter.

Wikipedia: Montessori method

Posted by trailing wife 2023-06-05 18:10|| 2023-06-05 18:10|| Front Page Top

#6 Thanks for being our own Rantburg Leiterin Ms. Trailing Wife, your work is appreciated.

Posted by jpal 2023-06-05 20:53|| 2023-06-05 20:53|| Front Page Top

#7 *blush* You are ever gallant, dear jpal. If I can return even the smallest amount of what I have received from y’all here, then I am content.

Posted by trailing wife 2023-06-05 21:24|| 2023-06-05 21:24|| Front Page Top

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