Take that, Ilhan Omar!
[Garowe] U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said Saturday that U.S. ...
KABOOM!...
s targeting al-Shabaab
...... the Islamic version of the old Somali warlord...
in Somalia over the past few days were undertaken because Somali forces are intensifying their offensive against the al-Qaeda-affiliated terror group.
"Most recently what’s happened is our partner forces have increased their op[erational] tempo, and they have been pushing back on al-Shabaab in a more significant way," Austin told news hounds traveling with him to Eielson Air Force Base in Alaska.
"The result of that is some engagements that were fairly intense, and we conducted those strikes to support our partner forces," he added.
U.S. Africa Command targeted al-Shabaab with two airstrikes on July 20 and July 23, following a nearly six-month hiatus that began when President Joe
The Big GuyBiden
...46th president of the U.S.
You're a lyin' dog-faced pony soldier...
took office.
The Somali military has been embroiled in a fierce struggle on the ground with al-Shabaab in Galmudug
...a semiautonomous region in central Somalia, bordering Puntland on the north. Galmudug is not trying to obtain international recognition as a separate nation, but rather considers itself autonomous within the larger Somali federalism, for what that's worth...
state, the region targeted in both U.S. strikes.
Pentagon press secretary John Kirby told VOA and other news hounds traveling aboard a U.S. military aircraft Friday that U.S. troops were not on the ground with Somali forces during the strikes but were conducting a remote advise-and-assist mission.
Further information was not provided because of "operational security."
The U.S. military carried out 63 airstrikes against al-Shabaab in 2019 and 53 airstrikes last year.
Another seven airstrikes were launched in the first 2½ weeks of 2021 before former U.S. President Donald Trump
...dictatorial for repealing some (but not all) of the diktats of his predecessor, misogynistic because he likes pretty girls, homophobic because he doesn't think gender bending should be mandatory, truly a man for all seasons......
left office.
U.S. officials explained the slowdown by citing a Biden administration, the same old faces in slightly different places, the same old ideas, the same old graft
...knaves, footpads, and adjustersemployed by the Biden Crime Family. They leave a trail of havoc everywhere they turn their attention, be it the nation's borders, the Keystone XL Pipeline, or epidemics, sometimes on purpose, most times through sheer arrogant ineptitude. They learnt this stuff in college, you know...
review of the military’s airstrike policy. Senior Somali officials concerned with the lack of strikes had warned it would allow al-Shabaab "to come out of hiding."