A CIA officer and former Navy SEAL has reportedly been killed in fight in Somalia, sources declare, mere days after critics warned that Trump’s alleged withdrawal plan undermines US nationwide safety and endangers People.
The veteran officer belonged to the CIA’s paramilitary division and was killed in “latest days” throughout preventing within the East African nation, the New York Instances reported on Wednesday, citing nameless US officers. His identification, mission and the precise circumstances of his demise stay unclear, nevertheless, whereas the CIA has but to touch upon the purported casualty.
Reviews of the retired SEAL’s demise come amid high-level dialogue of a doable US troop withdrawal from Somalia, in response to Reuters, Bloomberg, the Instances and different shops. Present estimates place round 700 American troopers in Somalia, the place they work alongside native safety forces of their battle towards Al-Shabab, an Islamist militant group affiliated with Al-Qaeda. It’s unknown what number of intelligence officers could be stationed within the nation.
Whereas a withdrawal from Somalia could be consistent with troop draw-downs Trump has ordered elsewhere, resembling in Iraq and Afghanistan, the proposal has been met with resistance from each critics of the president in addition to his personal personnel. Inside hours of an October report in Bloomberg noting that Trump had requested a withdrawal plan, a spokesman for AFRICOM – which oversees the US army presence in Africa – warned that Al-Shabab poses a “future menace to America,” arguing that Somali forces nonetheless required “worldwide help.”
The CIA officer’s fight demise is more likely to bolster that reluctant stance, which has been echoed by quite a few “counter-terrorism specialists” repeatedly cited within the American company press, many insisting a withdrawal would “strengthen” native terrorist teams. Nonetheless, critics of the continuing US presence in Somalia have countered {that a} withdrawal would doubtless solely reposition American forces to close by international locations, somewhat than ship them residence, additionally suggesting that CIA and different intelligence operatives wouldn’t depart with the troopers.
As we acknowledged in our newest Empire Replace, the doable “troops withdrawal” from Somalia not solely repositions troops in neighboring international locations to do the identical actual operations, however leaves CIA. Many don’t understand the CIA has its personal troops that do fight missions, identical to the Military https://t.co/GJhVJcScux
— The Empire Recordsdata (@EmpireFiles) November 26, 2020
Effectively I suppose it is official. FYI “pulling our troops out of Somalia” wouldn’t embody the CIA and the paramilitaries.
— Robert Younger Pelton (@RYP__) November 26, 2020
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