Why Washington is failing to confront Somalia’s Al-Shabaab

Ali Ragab

Nineteen years after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, there is little consensus among researchers, military and intelligence officials, and policymakers as to whether al-Qaeda is still a major threat to the national security of the United States. But very few experts on extremist movements would dismiss the terrorist organization forthwith.

The terrorist groups in the Horn of Africa constitute a major crisis for the United States’ efforts to combat terrorism, especially the Al-Shabaab terrorist movement, one of the most prominent branches of al-Qaeda in the region.

Recent months have witnessed a state of alert for the activities of Al-Shabaab, which has intensified its terrorist operations in August, carrying out about 34 terrorist operations in Somalia alone. These operations have resulted in the deaths of more than 99 victims and the injury of 132 others, according to Al-Azhar Observatory to Combat Extremism.

The US administration has provided a US military grant to Ethiopia, estimated at $2.9 million, to combat Al-Shabaab in Somalia and the Horn of Africa.

According to a statement by the US embassy in Addis Ababa, the grant includes equipment and training work aimed at assisting the Ethiopian defense forces to face security threats posed by Al-Shabaab and other terrorist groups in the region.

There have been accusations against Washington for the failure of its military strategy in Somalia and for spending $3.5 billion over the past two decades to restore security and stability in the most important African country on the Indian Ocean and the Horn of Africa without having yet succeeded.

However, the US Department of Defense stressed that its military strategy in the war against Al-Shabaab in Somalia has not failed, but rather still continues.

The leadership of the American forces in Africa (AFRICOM) made it clear in a report that it had launched 46 airstrikes against Al-Shabaab during the current year alone.

“Our strategy has not failed. Rather, our military action has stopped and disrupted the aspirations of (Al-Shabaab) to increase violence and export it on a larger scale,” said Pentagon spokesman Colonel Anton Semelroth, according to Asharq Al-Awsat.

“The US national defense strategy indicates that the terrorists who threaten the American homeland, in addition to the malicious activities of China, Russia, North Korea and Iran, pose major threats in the global environment today,” he added.

Semelroth stressed that the Pentagon “remains committed to destroying (Al-Shabaab), which has sworn allegiance to (al-Qaeda), and to work with our African partners to promote common security interests.”

US Acting Representative to the UN Cherith Norman Chalet noted that her country “continues to use air strikes to target the leaders of (Al-Shabaab),” but admitted that “military operations alone will not lead to victory over the terrorists.”

Observers believe that Al-Shabaab is expanding in Somalia, especially in the Middle Shabelle region in the south of the country, with a scheme to re-establish an emirate for itself in southern Somalia.

Al-Shabaab, which controls most of Somalia, seeks as a military arm of the Islamic Courts Union, which used to control Mogadishu and has aimed to impose Sharia law for the past two decades.

Observers have warned that Washington’s policy in the Horn of Africa has not led to the elimination of terrorist groups due to Turkey and Qatar’s support for extremist organizations. Also, former leaders of the Al-Shabaab movement took over the Somali National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA), while the agency’s director, Fahad Yasin, is known as Qatar’s man in Mogadishu, along with his deputy.

Former NISA Deputy Director General Abdalla Abdalla recently confirmed that the terrorists managed to infiltrate NISA and the national security services in general.

Abdalla added that his office was sabotaged after it was suspended from work by malicious parties that fear the presence of files revealing their links with terrorists. He expressed his surprise his immediate successor, namely Fahad Yasin, working without having his tasks handed to him.