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Quoting anonymous officials, The New York Times reported Wednesday that a veteran CIA officer was killed in combat in Somalia. Details of the death are scarce and the officer was not identified.
News of the death comes as President Trump is considering withdrawing virtually all US troops from Somalia. There are an estimated 700 US soldiers in the country. All or most of the soldiers were sent there by the Trump administration.
Most of the US troops in Somalia are special forces there to train the local army. The United States is fighting the militant group al-Shabab in the country, a war waged primarily by drones and covert incursions. According to the Times, the CIA officer who died was a member of the agency’s paramilitary unit.
If the Trump administration achieves a withdrawal, it will not affect bases in neighboring Djibouti and Kenya, which is where drones carrying out airstrikes in Somalia are based. According to the administration’s plans, if the troops return home, the United States would continue to carry out operations against al-Shabab.
President Trump dramatically escalated the war against al-Shabab, dropping more bombs on Somalia in the first seven months of 2020 than during all the George W Bush and Barack Obama administrations combined.
According to the TimesSome intelligence officials within the CIA believe that al-Shabab is only a threat to American interests in Africa, but not outside the region. Others believe that if the group is not dealt with, they can be a global threat.
Due to its al-Qaeda affiliation and size, al-Shabab is portrayed as the preeminent threat to the American homeland as a way to justify American intervention in Somalia. When reports surfaced that Trump was considering withdrawing troops from the country, a spokesman for the US Africa Command warned against the plan, saying al-Shabab “represents a future threat to the United States.”
But like many groups the United States is fighting in the Middle East and North Africa, al-Shabab was born out of resistance to a US-backed invasion and occupation. In 2006, the United States supported an Ethiopian invasion to drive out the Union of Islamic Courts, a Muslim coalition that seized control of Mogadishu from a group of warlords.
The first recorded attack for which al-Shabab claimed responsibility was a car bomb in 2007 that targeted Ethiopian soldiers occupying Mogadishu. It wasn’t until 2012, after years of fighting the United States and its proxies, that al-Shabab pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda.
