US general wants more ‘flexibility’ when bombing Al-Shabaab militants in Somalia

Daesh-aligned militants of Al-Shabaab, Somalia

The head of US forces in Africa told reporters yesterday that greater authority to fight Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Shabaab militants in Somalia would lead to more flexibility and quicker targeting, but that a decision had not yet been made by the White House.

Al-Shabaab has been able to carry out deadly bombings despite losing most of its territory to African Union peacekeepers supporting the Somali government.

The United States has a small presence in Somalia and is allowed to carry out strikes in defence of partnered forces.

“Regardless of what combatant commander was sitting here this afternoon, I think they would all tell you that it is very important and very helpful for us to have a little bit more flexibility, a little bit more timeliness in terms of decision-making process and…it will allow us to prosecute targets in a more rapid fashion,” Marine General Thomas Waldhauser, the top US military commander overseeing troops in Africa, said at a press conference.

Critics of former President Barack Obama’s administration said that it took too long for Washington to approve strikes against militants when they surfaced, allowing some to escape.

Obama’s supporters, however, said greater scrutiny of US military power helped reduce civilian casualties and the risk of “mission creep”.

Waldhauser also said there was no need to “sound the alarm” about a potential resurgence of piracy off Somalia’s coast after pirates seized a small oil tanker, the first such incident since 2012.

“It is too early to say that now we have an epidemic, but it did catch our attention,” Waldhauser said.

In their heyday in 2011, Somali pirates launched 237 attacks off the coast of Somalia, data from the International Maritime Bureau showed, and held hundreds of hostages.

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Source: Middle East Monitor

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