US military advisers have secretly operated in Somalia since around 2007 and Washington plans to deepen its security assistance to help the country fend off threats by Islamist militant group al Shabaab, US officials said.
The comments are the first detailed public acknowledgement of a US military presence in Somalia dating back since the US administration of George W. Bush and add to other signs of a deepening US commitment to Somalia’s government, which the Obama administration recognised last year.
The deployments, consisting of up to 120 troops on the ground, go beyond the Pentagon’s January announcement that it had sent a handful of advisors in October.
That was seen at the time as the first assignment of US troops to Somalia since 1993 when two US helicopters were shot down and 18 American troops killed in the “Black Hawk Down” disaster.
The plans to further expand US military assistance coincide with increasing efforts by the Somali government and African Union peacekeepers to counter a bloody seven-year insurgent campaign by the al-Qaida-linked al Shabaab to impose strict Islamic law inside Somalia.
Those US plans include greater military engagement and new funds for training and assistance for the Somali National Army (SNA), after years of working with the African Union Mission in Somalia, or AMISOM, which has about 22,000 troops in the country from Uganda, Kenya, Sierra Leone, Burundi, Djibouti and Ethiopia.
