{"id":143401,"date":"2015-02-06T16:52:51","date_gmt":"2015-02-06T16:52:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/?p=143401"},"modified":"2015-02-06T16:52:51","modified_gmt":"2015-02-06T16:52:51","slug":"latest-drone-strike-al-shabaab-signal-change-us-tactics-somalia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/war-terrorism\/latest-drone-strike-al-shabaab-signal-change-us-tactics-somalia\/","title":{"rendered":"Does latest drone strike on al Shabaab signal change in US tactics in Somalia?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jack Serle<\/em><\/p>\n

A US drone strike which killed a senior al Shabaab leader in Somalia last Saturday\u00a0appears to have been part of a change of tactics by the Americans since it started targeting the militant group in 2007.<\/p>\n

It was the fifth consecutive such strike against al Shabaab\u2019s leadership, with drones now appearing to have superseded other, manned aircraft and cruise-missiles in the seven years since attacks began in Somalia.<\/p>\n

The unmanned systems are now\u00a0widely seen as the US\u2019s weapon of choice in its war on terror, as they can \u201cstrike their targets with astonishing precision,\u201d according to CIA director John Brennan.<\/p>\n

But despite their\u00a0vaunted precision, there are reports the latest strike in Somalia, on January 31<\/a>, killed or injured civilians.<\/p>\n

The attack killed at least five people, all reportedly members of al Shabaab and one of them identified as Yusef Dheeq, a senior figure in the group.<\/p>\n

The attack reportedly hit an al Shabaab convoy at about 9am local time (6am GMT). The US carried out the attack, Pentagon press secretary Rear Admiral John Kirby told reporters.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was done with Hellfire missiles fired from UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles],\u201d he said at a press briefing on Tuesday. \u201cThere were no US boots on the ground\u201d in this mission, he added.<\/p>\n

Al Shabaab commander Yusef Dheeq was killed in the attack, according to the Somali government and an unnamed US official.<\/p>\n

The US would not officially confirm Dheeq was dead, with Kirby telling reporters: \u201cHe has not been officially declared dead. I\u2019m not in a position now to confirm the results of the strike but if successful, if he no longer breathes, then this is a significant, another significant blow to al Shabaab.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt goes to show how long our reach can be when it comes to counter-terrorism,\u201d he added. The Bureau understands the US will confirm Dheeq\u2019s death in the coming days.<\/p>\n

It is not clear exactly what role Dheeq had within al Shabaab. Kirby said he was the group\u2019s \u201cintelligence and security chief, and director of external planning\u201d. The Somali intelligence services said Dheeq \u2014 also known as Abdi Nur Mahdi \u2014 was a bomb making expert.<\/p>\n

At least four other people were reportedly killed with him \u2014 all described as al Shabaab fighters. A local resident told AFP there were four civilian casualties in the strike, but it was not clear if they were injured or killed in the attack.<\/p>\n

An official told the Bureau the US was aware of civilian casualty reports and was \u201clooking into it\u201d. However the official reiterated what Kirby said at the briefing, that \u201cwe don\u2019t assess there to be any civilian or bystander casualties as a result of the strike\u201d.<\/p>\n

This is the third consecutive drone strike in Somalia that has been publicly acknowledged by a US spokesman from a podium in the Pentagon press room. Such public acknowledgement is considerably rare.<\/p>\n

The military is also responsible for some of the minimum 89 drone strikes in Yemen<\/a> but the US has never gone on the record about specific drone strikes there.<\/p>\n

The Pentagon would not be drawn on why there appears to be greater transparency about strikes in Somalia but not Yemen, telling the Bureau: \u201cWe are as transparent as we can be on all strikes, regardless of location.\u201d<\/p>\n

More drones: A change in US tactics?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The recent glut of drone strikes in Somalia is a departure from how the US covert war began in the country in 2007. The first confirmed US drone strike hit Shabaab in June 2011 and since then, there have been eight such\u00a0strikes in all, killing at least 23 people.<\/p>\n

There have been eight other confirmed US attacks recorded by the Bureau that killed at least 40.<\/p>\n

Two of these included cruise-missiles launched from ships off the Somali coast. There was also one naval bombardment, when a US warship the Chafee, used its deck gun on June 1 2007\u00a0to fire shells onto the shoreline, supporting US commandos who were taking fire from al Shabaab fighters.<\/p>\n

Most of the other US attacks were by AC-130s \u2014 formidable gunships resembling Hercules transport aircraft that bristle with weapons.<\/p>\n

Five of the first six confirmed US attacks<\/a> in Somalia reportedly involved AC-130s. They killed at least 30 people. There has not been a reported AC-130 attack since the end of 2008.<\/p>\n

The first AC-130 strikes, on January 7<\/a> and January 9<\/a>, hit as Ethiopian ground forces invaded Somalia,reportedly with secret US backing<\/a>. The targets of these strikes were reportedly suspects in the 1998 east African embassy bombings who appeared to have been churned out of their bases in Somalia by the advancing Ethiopian troops.<\/p>\n

The US\u2019s recent reliance on drones to kill leading al Shabaab fighters could be because the US fleet of armed drones has grown considerably<\/a>. The US Air Force had funding in the 2007 budget to run 37 Reaper drones from 2005 to 2011. By 2012, this had risen to 401 aircraft, according to a Pentagon inspector general report released this year.<\/p>\n

This increase was in response to the US recognising how useful drones were in the counter-terrorism and counter insurgency battles it was fighting around the world.<\/p>\n

The first strike in Somalia demonstrates how arming drones has helped the US fight its global war on terror. While the January 7 2007 strike was an AC-130 strike, the gunship was guided to its target by an unarmed Predator drone that had been following the al Shabaab convoy. The Predator is an older, smaller, less powerful and well armed version of the Reaper.<\/p>\n

The Predator\u2019s ability to stay aloft above the battlefield for hours on end helped it stay on the target. However the strike had to wait until the gunship could arrive.<\/p>\n

The US would have been able to fire at will at its target in this strike, if the drone were armed. However the strike would have been reportedly hamstrung by shaky intelligence, even if carried out using the Predator\u2019s apparently surgical accuracy.<\/p>\n

A Pentagon spokesman said<\/a> the US based the strike on intelligence \u201cthat led us to believe we had principal al Qaeda leaders in an area where we could identify them and take action against them.\u201d But another US official said<\/a>: \u201cFrankly, I don\u2019t think we know who we killed.\u201d<\/p>\n

This piece<\/a> was reprinted by RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission or license.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jack Serle A US drone strike which killed a senior al Shabaab leader in Somalia last Saturday\u00a0appears to have been part of a change of tactics by the Americans since it started targeting the militant group in 2007. It was the fifth consecutive such strike against al Shabaab\u2019s leadership, with drones now appearing to have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":143402,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[487,16],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-143401","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-breaking-news","8":"category-war-terrorism"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143401","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143401"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143401\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/143402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}