Operation Enduring Freedom – Horn Of Africa
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Operation Enduring Freedom has had related activities in the
Horn of Africa The Horn of Africa (HoA), also known as the Somali Peninsula, is a large peninsula and geopolitical region in East Africa.Robert Stock, ''Africa South of the Sahara, Second Edition: A Geographical Interpretation'', (The Guilford Press; 2004), ...
. United States counter-terrorist activities in the region have included advisers, supplies, and other forms of non-combat support, but more prominently have included drone strikes targeted at Al-Shabaab. Other American combat operations include manned airstrikes, cruise missile strikes, and special forces raids. Many such activities were initially supervised by Combined Joint Task Force - Horn of Africa before CJTF-HOA pivoted to a defense/diplomacy/development mission; others have been undertaken by task forces from Joint Special Operations Command. After the Fall of Kabul in November 2001, there was considerable U.S. Department of Defense concern that Islamist takfiri, jihadis, and others fleeing from Afghanistan might escape south and west to the
Arabian Peninsula The Arabian Peninsula (, , or , , ) or Arabia, is a peninsula in West Asia, situated north-east of Africa on the Arabian plate. At , comparable in size to India, the Arabian Peninsula is the largest peninsula in the world. Geographically, the ...
and
East Africa East Africa, also known as Eastern Africa or the East of Africa, is a region at the eastern edge of the Africa, African continent, distinguished by its unique geographical, historical, and cultural landscape. Defined in varying scopes, the regi ...
. U.S. Central Command already had responsibility for
Yemen Yemen, officially the Republic of Yemen, is a country in West Asia. Located in South Arabia, southern Arabia, it borders Saudi Arabia to Saudi Arabia–Yemen border, the north, Oman to Oman–Yemen border, the northeast, the south-eastern part ...
. But there were concerns that takfiri militants might escape across the
Arabian Sea The Arabian Sea () is a region of sea in the northern Indian Ocean, bounded on the west by the Arabian Peninsula, Gulf of Aden and Guardafui Channel, on the northwest by Gulf of Oman and Iran, on the north by Pakistan, on the east by India, and ...
to
East Africa East Africa, also known as Eastern Africa or the East of Africa, is a region at the eastern edge of the Africa, African continent, distinguished by its unique geographical, historical, and cultural landscape. Defined in varying scopes, the regi ...
. As a result,
II Marine Expeditionary Force The II Marine Expeditionary Force (II MEF) is a Marine Air-Ground Task Force consisting of ground, air and logistics forces capable of projecting offensive combat power ashore while sustaining itself in combat without external assistance for a ...
was directed to establish a task force, to be responsible for Yemen and East Africa, to operate from the former French colony of
Djibouti Djibouti, officially the Republic of Djibouti, is a country in the Horn of Africa, bordered by Somalia to the south, Ethiopia to the southwest, Eritrea in the north, and the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden to the east. The country has an area ...
. In due course Combined Joint Task Force – Horn of Africa (CJTF-HOA) was established, with its headquarters initially based aboard the command vessel . Its original mission was purely directed against fleeing takfiri militants from Afghanistan and/or other terrorist groups. U.S. forces became increasingly involved in the
Somali Civil War The Somali Civil War (; ) is an List of ongoing armed conflicts, ongoing civil war that is taking place in Somalia. It grew out of resistance to the military junta which was led by Siad Barre during the 1980s. From 1988 to 1990, the Somali Armed ...
. In October 2008, CJTF-HOA became part of the new
United States Africa Command The United States Africa Command (USAFRICOM, U.S. AFRICOM, and AFRICOM) is one of the eleven unified combatant commands of the United States Department of Defense, headquartered at Kelley Barracks, Stuttgart, Germany. It is responsible for ...
.


Somali civil war

In June 2006, ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' reported that senior Foreign Service officers at the United States Embassy in Nairobi had criticised the U.S.
Central Intelligence Agency The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...
's backing of the Somali
Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism The Somali Warlord Alliance, officially called the Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism (Abbreviation, abbreviated ARPCT; ), was a Somali people, Somali alliance created by various Somali warlords and businessmen with the ba ...
as short-sighted and counter-productive. A ''Reuters'' report said that support of the ARPCT had backfired and destabilized the area. In mid-June 2006, Ethiopian troops began to enter Somalia in large numbers, aiming to remove the Council of Islamic Courts who were then running Mogadishu. This began the next phase of the War in Somalia. On 1 July 2006, a web-posted message purportedly written by
Osama bin Laden Osama bin Laden (10 March 19572 May 2011) was a militant leader who was the founder and first general emir of al-Qaeda. Ideologically a pan-Islamist, Bin Laden participated in the Afghan ''mujahideen'' against the Soviet Union, and support ...
urged Somalis to build an Islamic state in the country and warned western states that his
al-Qaeda , image = Flag of Jihad.svg , caption = Jihadist flag, Flag used by various al-Qaeda factions , founder = Osama bin Laden{{Assassinated, Killing of Osama bin Laden , leaders = {{Plainlist, * Osama bin Lad ...
network would fight against them if they intervened there. On 3 January 2007, U.S. Marines operating out of Lamu, Kenya, were reported as assisting Kenyan forces patrolling the border with Somalia with the interception of Islamists. ''The Standard'' On 8 January it was reported that a U.S. Air Force
AC-130 The Lockheed AC-130 gunship is a heavily armed, long-endurance, attack aircraft, ground-attack variant of the C-130 Hercules transport, fixed-wing aircraft. It carries a wide array of ground-attack weapons that are integrated with sensors, nav ...
gunship had attacked suspected al-Qaeda operatives in southern Somalia. It was also reported that the aircraft carrier had been moved into striking distance. Many bodies were spotted on the ground, but the identity of the dead or wounded was not yet established. The targeted leaders were tracked by the use of
unmanned aerial vehicles An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) or unmanned aircraft system (UAS), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft with no human pilot, crew, or passengers onboard, but rather is controlled remotely or is autonomous.De Gruyter Handbook of Dron ...
(UAVs) as they headed south from Mogadishu starting on 28 December. It was reported that the leader of al-Qaeda in East Africa, Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, was killed in the attack, but later officials confirmed that he survived and also that none of the al-Qaeda operatives were killed. However, at least 10 civilians were killed. On 9 January it was reported U.S. special forces and
CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...
operatives were working with Ethiopian troops on the ground in operations inside Somalia from a base in Galkayo, in
Puntland Puntland is an autonomous state that considers itself to be part of Somalia, despite not accepting the legitimacy of Somalia's current governing administration. It was formed in 1998, and was a federal member state of Somalia from its fou ...
, and from
Camp Lemonnier Camp Lemonnier is a United States Naval Expeditionary Base, situated next to Djibouti–Ambouli International Airport in Djibouti City, and home to the Combined Joint Task Force – Horn of Africa (CJTF-HOA) of the U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM). ...
, Djibouti. On 12 January, a small team of U.S. forces investigated the site of the U.S. gunship attack to search for information about the identity and fate of the targeted individuals. On 17 January 2007, the Assistant Deputy Secretary of Defense for African affairs, Theresa Whelan, clarified the airstrike conducted on 8 January was not the work of the CJTF-HOA, but of another force which she did not specify. The target of the strike was confirmed to be Aden Hashi Farah Ayro, who was believed wounded or possibly dead, while eight members of his group were killed in the attack. On 27 December 2006, ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' reported analysts in
Nairobi Nairobi is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Kenya. The city lies in the south-central part of Kenya, at an elevation of . The name is derived from the Maasai language, Maasai phrase , which translates to 'place of cool waters', a ...
, Kenya claimed U.S. surveillance aircraft were funnelling information to Ethiopian forces., Sean Naylor's ''Relentless Strike'' describes U.S. SOF personnel accompanying the invading Ethiopian forces. Somali Prime Minister Ali Mohammed Ghedi declared one of the key objectives of the offensive on Kismayo was the capture of three alleged al-Qaeda members, suspects wanted for the
1998 United States embassy bombings The 1998 United States embassy bombings were attacks that occurred on August 7, 1998. More than 220 people were killed in two nearly simultaneous car bomb, truck bomb explosions in two East African capital cities, one at the Embassy of the Uni ...
in East Africa: Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan and Abu Taha al-Sudani. Combined Task Force 150, a U.S.-led Combined Maritime Forces task force was operating off the coast of Somalia to disrupt terrorist activity. At the time, the task force included vessels from Canada, France, Germany, Pakistan, the United Kingdom, and the U.S. ''Arleigh Burke''-class destroyer and the ''Ticonderoga''-class cruiser . The aim of the patrols shifted on 2 January 2007, according to diplomats, to "... stop SICC leaders or foreign militant supporters escaping". Likewise, many airstrikes which resulted in civilian casualties around Afmadow conducted by Ethiopian aircraft were mis-attributed to the United States. On 21 January 2007 the capture of U.S. troops was reported by the Qaadisiya.com site, as well as the death of one due to
malaria Malaria is a Mosquito-borne disease, mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects vertebrates and ''Anopheles'' mosquitoes. Human malaria causes Signs and symptoms, symptoms that typically include fever, Fatigue (medical), fatigue, vomitin ...
, but this assertion was denied as "utterly bogus" by Michael Ranneberger, U.S. Envoy to Kenya and Somalia. On 24 January, the U.S. admitted to have made a second airstrike, but did not confirm the exact date or location of the strike. United States involvement in the conflict continued through 2008 with airstrikes targeting suspected Al Qaeda affiliated militants including a strike of dubious success conducted on 2 March 2008 where at least one U.S. naval vessel launched cruise missiles against an Al Qaeda target in a strike on the village of Dobley and a successful strike on
Dhusamareb Dusmareb (, , ) is the capital of Galmudug state in central Somalia. The city also serves as the administrative capital of the Galguduud province. Historically, the city was known as Daar Dheer or simply Dardher but later in time the city's name ...
which killed several militant leaders


Somali Civil War (2009–present)

On 28 November 2010 the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Jendayi Frazer announced that the United States has no intention of committing troops to Somalia to root out al-Qaeda.. On 25 January 2012, two U.S. Navy SEAL teams raided a compound north of Adado,
Galmudug Galmudug (; ), officially Galmudug State of Somalia (), is a States and regions of Somalia, Federal Member State in central Somalia, with its capital at Dhusamareb. It is bordered to the north by the Puntland state of Somalia, to the west by the S ...
, Somalia, freeing two hostages while killing nine pirates and capturing five others. On 5 October 2013, Naval Special Warfare Development Group SEAL commandos launched an amphibious raid on the town of Baraawe, fighting with al-Shabaab militants and inflicting some casualties on them before withdrawing. On 5 March 2016, U.S. airstrikes carried out by aircraft and unmanned drones killed more than 150 Al-Shabaab terrorists at a terrorist training camp called "Camp Raso", located about 120 miles north of Mogadishu as they were completing "training for a large-scale attack" according to a Pentagon spokesman. The camp had been under surveillance for some time before the strike. In the early hours of 9 March 2016, U.S. special forces and Somali national army special forces killed between 1 and 15 Al-Shabaab terrorists in a heliborne-attack on the Al-Shabaab-controlled town of Awdhegele, as well as capturing an undisclosed number of high-value Al-Shabaab figures the militants were training for a major operation against coalition forces. On 11/12 April 2016, two U.S. airstrikes on Al-Shabaab targets in the town of Kismayo killed about a dozen suspected militants who posed an "imminent threat" to American troops in the country. As of May 2016, roughly 50 U.S. special operations troops operate at undisclosed locations across southern Somalia, with their headquarters at the airport in Mogadishu; advising and assisting, Kenyan, Somali and Ugandan forces in their fight against Al-Shabaab. Also in that month, U.S. personnel helped those forces plan an operation against illegal checkpoints. On 13 May, a U.S. strike targeted nine al-Shabab militants, three of them were allegedly killed. On 1 June 2016, the Pentagon announced that it had conducted an airstrike that killed a senior Al-Shabaab leader in Somalia on 27 May. On 3 August 2016, a contingent of elite American troops acting as military advisers assisted Somali commandos in an assault on an al-Shabaab checkpoint in Saakow, as the Somali-led force approached the checkpoint the militants opened fire, a gun battle ensued that resulted in 3 militants killed. On 29 September 2016, the ''Military Times'' reported that on 26 September a bomb-manufacturing network linked al-Shabaab attacked a small team of U.S. and Somali troops, who were conducting an operation near Kismayo, with small-arms fire. A Pentagon spokesman said the U.S. military "conducted a self-defense strike to neutralize the threat and in doing so killed nine enemy fighters." Also on 28 September, near the town of Galkayo, a Somali army unit conducting counterterrorism operations nearby, when the Somali soldiers came under fire from al-Shabab militants. The Somali soldiers engaged them, then broke contact and rejoined with their nearby American advisers and soon afterwards the militants "began to maneuver in an offensive manner" so the U.S. conducted a self-defense airstrike, killing 4 militants.


Drone attacks

* On 25 June 2011, U.S.
Predator Predation is a biological interaction in which one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common List of feeding behaviours, feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation ...
drones attacked a Shabaab training camp south of Kismayo. Ibrahim al-Afghani, a senior al Shabaab leader was rumored to be killed in the strike. * On 6 September 2011, a U.S. drone struck a large Al-Shabaab base, killing 35 militants. * A drone strike on 17 September killed 17 militants. * A U.S. drone strike occurred near Mogadishu on 21 January 2012, killing British al-Qaeda operative Bilal el-Berjawi. * 4 Al-Shabaab fighters, including a white Kenyan and a Moroccan jihadist named Abu Ibrahim, were killed in a drone strike in the K60 area (60 miles south of Mogadishu) of the Lower Shabelle region in southern Somalia late on 24 February 2012.


Naval actions against piracy

Piracy off the coast of Somalia Piracy off the coast of Somalia occurs in the Gulf of Aden, Guardafui Channel, and Indian Ocean, in Somali territorial waters and other surrounding places and has a long troubled history with different perspectives from different communities. I ...
presented a hazard to all shipping in the Gulf of Aden and down the coast of East Africa. It began to escalate after the
2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami On 26 December 2004, at 07:58:53 local time ( UTC+7), a major earthquake with a magnitude of 9.2–9.3 struck with an epicentre off the west coast of Aceh in northern Sumatra, Indonesia. The undersea megathrust earthquake, known in the sci ...
which heavily impacted livelihoods along the coast of southern Somalia. CJTF-HOA is primarily an air and land task force. It did not control naval actions against piracy, which fell under U.S. Naval Forces Central Command (NAVCENT). The Combined Maritime Forces, under the direction of NAVCENT, directed Combined Task Force 150, and
Combined Task Force 151 Combined Task Force 151 (CTF-151) is a multinational naval task force, set up in 2009 as a response to piracy attacks in the Gulf of Aden and off the eastern coast of Somalia. Its mission is to disrupt piracy and armed robbery at sea and to engag ...
. Pakistan joined CTF 150. The European Union Military Staff directed the EU anti-piracy
Operation Atalanta Operation Atalanta, formally European Union Naval Force (EU NAVFOR) Somalia, is an ongoing counter-piracy military operation at sea off the Horn of Africa and in the Western Indian Ocean, that is the first naval operation conducted by the ...
. NATO later ran
Operation Ocean Shield Operation Ocean Shield was NATO's contribution to Operation Enduring Freedom – Horn of Africa (OEF-HOA), an anti-piracy initiative in the Indian Ocean, Guardafui Channel, Gulf of Aden and Arabian Sea. It follows the earlier Operation All ...
. Independent anti-piracy operations were conducted off the coast of Somalia by other countries such as China and Russia.


See also

*
Al-Qaeda insurgency in Yemen {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Al-Qaeda insurgency in Yemen , image = Yemeni Civil War.svg , width = 480px , image_size = 300px , caption = Political and military control in Yemen i ...
* Terrorism in Yemen * Baraawe raid *
Manhunt (military) Manhunting is a term sometimes used for military operations by special operations forces and intelligence organizations to search for, and capture or kill important enemy combatants, known as high-value targets. It has been used particularly in t ...


References

* Defence Technical Information Centre

*


External links


Combined Joint Task Force Horn of Africa
Official U.S. Military web site

US And UK Navies Resolve Hi-Jacking {{DEFAULTSORT:Operation Enduring Freedom - Horn Of Africa Military operations of the Somali Civil War Enduring Freedom – Horn of Africa Enduring Freedom – Horn of Africa War on terror History of the Horn of Africa United States Marine Corps in the 21st century Anti-piracy Enduring Freedom – Horn of Africa Enduring Freedom – Horn of Africa Enduring Freedom – Horn of Africa Enduring Freedom – Horn of Africa American involvement in the Somali Civil War