WASHINGTON - Instead of directly attacking Somalia's Shebab militants, the
United States provides crucial intelligence and training to other armies
battling the Islamists in a deliberately low-profile approach, officials
said Tuesday.
A bloody four-day siege of a Nairobi shopping mall claimed by Shebab has
focused attention on US-backed efforts to weaken the insurgents, which
American officials claim have been effective despite the attack over the
weekend.
>From airfields stretching from Djibouti to Entebbe, the US military and
intelligence agencies fly surveillance drones to track Shebab's movements
while American special operations forces have taught tactics to troops from
Kenya, Ethiopia and the Somali government, officials and experts say.
"It is definitely a light footprint approach," Seth Jones, a former adviser
to special operations commanders in Afghanistan and the Pentagon, told AFP.
"The US presence has been minimal, overtly anyway," said Jones, an author of
books on insurgencies and terrorism.
The intelligence handed over to regional allies, rather than a modest amount
of military hardware, represents the most important part of the assistance,
he said.
"The US does collect a lot of information and passes it along."
Defense officials believe "indirect" methods have proved a success, and that
the Nairobi attack was partly an attempt by the group to grab headlines and
retaliate for battlefield defeats in Somalia.
"Not long ago, the government of Somalia controlled only a few blocks in
Mogadishu and now they have control over a large area in southern Somalia,"
said a US military officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The Shebab is definitely "under pressure" but "they're clearly not gone,"
the officer said.
President Barack Obama's administration has no plans to dramatically change
its policy and move towards drone strikes or raids by special forces,
officials said.
Since Al-Qaeda's bombing of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998 and
the attacks of September 11, 2001, the US military began building up a
logistical network across East Africa, arranging access to airfields and
ports with a base in Djibouti serving as the main hub.
About 3,000 troops are deployed at Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti, which
oversees training by special forces and other military assistance in the
region.
Another 150 US military personnel are currently in Kenya, including
trainers, while a similar number are posted in Ethiopia, defense officials
said.
The Pentagon spends hundreds of millions of dollars in support of the
African Union mission in Somalia offering logistical help, equipment,
training and troop transport.
After 9/11, the US military created a joint task force in East Africa with a
"capture or kill" mission. But drone strikes and special forces' raids
gradually gave way to advising and assisting Somalia's neighbors.
Unlike Pakistan or Yemen, drone strikes targeting Al-Qaeda linked militants
in Somalia have been the rare exception.
Washington has preferred to work behind the scenes partly because a big
footprint would produce a backlash and invite comparisons to the troubled US
deployment in Somalia in the 1990s.
"The US role in Somalia is definitely problematic. The US has a history in
Somalia, some of it's good, some of it's not so good," Jones said.
The attack in Nairobi, which killed 61 civilians, coupled with Shebab's
recruitment of Americans of Somali heritage, prompted calls from some US
lawmakers for the United States to go after the militants with American
firepower.
But the Obama administration will be reluctant to change its strategy unless
there is a clear sign that Shebab poses an imminent threat to US embassies
in the region or that its American recruits are heading back to the United
States to stage attacks, experts said.
The fact that some of the attackers were US nationals raises the "level of
concern" for Washington, "in part because there's always a concern that they
will come back to the United States and stage attacks here," said Kim
Cragin, who has written about terror threats and religious extremism.
There has been a debate "over whether Shebab has been in its last gasp or
whether it can rebound from the setbacks," said Cragin, a senior political
scientist at the RAND Corporation think tank.
The Nairobi assault indicates the group cannot be counted out just yet, she
said.
With access to airfields in Kenya, Uganda, South Sudan and Ethiopia, ports
in Kenya, and other forces based in Sigonella, Italy, the US administration
has a network at the ready if it chooses to fight.