U.S. Military Urges Biden to Place Commandos in Somalia

The American military is asking President Biden to station several commandos in Somalia to help blunt the spread of al Qaeda’s aggressive local affiliate, al-Shabaab group, according to U.S. officials.

In a series of reports found in The Wall Street Journal, Pentagon wants President Biden sign off on sending several hundred special operations troops into Somalia to help stop the spread of the al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab group.

Defense leaders want Biden to reverse orders made by then-President Trump in his final days in office, when he directed roughly 700 Army Green Berets, Navy SEALs and Marine Raiders to withdraw from bases in Somalia.

The commandos, who had been training local fighters to defend against al-Shabaab, were mostly moved to nearby Djibouti and Kenya. The U.S. military now wants the White House to move those forces back to Somalia, the officials said.

U.S. military counterterrorism operations have spread across the globe in the last 20 years since the United States invaded Afghanistan, with troops targeting al Qaeda, its affiliates and later ISIS everywhere from Iraq and Syria to Libya to Yemen to Somalia and to the Philippines.