美国总统乔·拜登(Joe Biden)推翻了前任唐纳德·特朗普(Donald Trump)的决定，批准了五角大楼向索马里重新部署数百名美国士兵的请求，作为反恐努力的一部分，美国国家安全委员会(National Security Council)称这是“美国在索马里的长期军事存在”。
此举将在索马里重新建立一个不限成员名额的任务，协助该国打击青年党一个当地的基地组织分支。
该组织曾经统治过索马里，并一直在寻求夺回该国部分地区的控制权。它在肯尼亚进行了海外恐怖袭击，包括在2020年1月当三名美国人死亡时针对美国基地的袭击。
国家安全委员会发言人阿德里安娜·沃森(Adrienne Watson)周一表示，拜登政府认为，此举将“使我们的合作伙伴能够更有效地打击青年党，青年党是基地组织最大、最富有、最致命的分支，对东非的美国人构成了更大的威胁”。
一名高级政府官员周一晚些时候告诉记者，返回索马里的美军人数将“不到500人”，他们将继续执行训练索马里军队和协助当地部队执行反恐任务的相同任务。五角大楼发言人约翰·柯比周一下午强调，“我们的部队现在没有也不会直接参与战斗行动。”
五角大楼仍在与索马里政府协商，评估部队何时返回。
乔尔·罗宾/法新社
1993年11月14日，美国士兵在索马里胜利营基地附近巡逻。
“这是对已经在战区的部队的重新定位，自上届政府做出2020年底撤军的仓促决定以来，这些部队不时进出索马里，”国家安全委员会发言人沃森说。
沃森补充说:“重新引入持久存在的决定是为了最大限度地提高我们部队的安全性和有效性，使他们能够为我们的合作伙伴提供更有效的支持。”
2020年12月，在总统任期即将结束时，特朗普下令撤出近750名驻索马里美军，作为进一步减少在阿富汗、伊拉克和其他地方驻军的更广泛战略的一部分。特朗普承诺结束他所谓的“永远的战争”。
他的撤军决定结束了美国特种作战部队的长期存在，他们一直在协助索马里军方打击青年党。从那时起，美国人员就开始轮流进入索马里执行为期几个月的临时培训任务。
根据政府的说法，拜登总统决定重新向那里派驻部队，这将使部队再次保持打击青年党的开放式态势。拜登的高级官员周一告诉记者，新的存在将结束特朗普决定后实施的“进出”轮换。
这名官员将部队部署与特朗普总统决定撤军进行了对比，称早些时候的撤军“不合理，因为随着部队轮流进出该国，这给部队带来了不必要的高风险。”
这位官员补充说，“承担这种风险给我们带来的回报更少，因为这破坏了他们与合作伙伴合作的效率和一致性。”
这位高级官员将这一决定视为政府全球反恐努力的一部分，该努力还侧重于将有限的资源优先用于应对“最危险和最严重的威胁”。
“在一个我们必须优先考虑如何应对全球反恐的世界里，鉴于青年党构成的威胁，它是一个值得注意的优先目标，”这名官员说——无论是在索马里还是在海外。这位官员强调了对一名索马里男子的联邦指控，当局称该男子在菲律宾参加飞行课程，准备对美国城市发动9/11式的袭击。嫌疑人乔洛·阿卜迪·阿卜杜拉拒不认罪。
“在2020年撤军是一个错误，”美国广播公司新闻撰稿人米克·马尔罗伊(Mick Mulroy)告诉美国广播公司新闻，他曾担任副助理国防部长，也是索马里行动的退伍军人。
“远程训练不足以阻止青年党的扩张或收集来自这个恐怖组织的威胁，”他说。
穆尔罗伊说:“今天决定派遣特种作战部队返回该国，与我们的主要伙伴和新当选的总统合作，这是正确的决定。新当选的总统在担任总统期间非常熟悉我们的行动。”。
Biden approves return of US troops for Somalia counterterrorism fight, reversing Trump
Reversing a decision by predecessor Donald Trump, President Joe Biden has approved a Pentagon request to redeploy several hundred American troops to Somalia for what the National Security Council calls "a persistent U.S. military presence" there as part of counterterrorism efforts.
The move will reestablish an open-ended mission in Somalia assisting the country in its fight againstal-Shabab, a local al-Qaida affiliate.
The group once ruled Somalia and has been seeking to regain territorial control over parts of the country. It has carried out overseas terror attacks in Kenya, including in January 2020when three Americans diedin an assault targeting a U.S. base.
The Biden administration believes the move will "enable our partners to conduct a more effective fight against al-Shabab, which is al-Qaida's largest, wealthiest, and deadliest affiliate and poses a heightened threat to Americans in East Africa," National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson said Monday.
A senior administration official told reporters later Monday that the number of U.S. troops returning to Somalia would be "under 500" and that they would continue with the same mission of training Somalia's military and assisting local forces on counterterrorism missions. Pentagon spokesman John Kirby stressed on Monday afternoon that "our forces are not now nor will they be directly engaged in combat operations."
The Pentagon is still evaluating when the return of forces will take place, in consultation with the Somali government.
"This is a repositioning of forces already in theater who have travelled in and out of Somalia on an episodic basis since the previous administration made the precipitous decision to withdraw at the end of 2020," Watson, the NSC spokeswoman, said.
"The decision to reintroduce a persistent presence was made to maximize the safety and effectiveness of our forces and enable them to provide more efficient support to our partners," Watson added.
In December 2020, near the end of his presidential term, Trump ordered the withdrawal of the nearly 750 U.S. troops in Somalia as part of a broader strategy to further reduce the troop presence in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere. Trump had committed to ending what he labeled "forever wars."
His draw-down decision ended a longterm presence of U.S. special operations troops that had been assisting the Somali military against al-Shabab. Since then, American personnel have been rotating into Somalia on temporary training missions lasting up to a few months.
President Biden's decision to recommit forces there will allow troops to again stay in an open-ended posture against al-Shabab, according to the administration. The new presence will end the "in and out" rotation implemented after Trump's decision, the senior Biden official told reporters Monday.
The official contrasted the troop deployment with President Trump's decision to remove forces, calling the earlier draw-down "irrational because it created unnecessary and elevated risk to forces as they moved in and out of the country on a rotational basis."
The official added that "it gave us less payoff for incurring that risk because it disrupted their efficacy and consistency of their work with partners."
The senior official framed the decision as part of the administration's global counterterrorism effort that also focuses on prioritizing limited resources against "the most dangerous and ascendant threats."
"In a world in which we must prioritize how we approach global counterterrorism, al-Shabab is a notable priority given the threat it poses," the official said — both in Somalia and overseas. The official highlighted federal charges against a Somali man whom authorities claim was taking flight lessons in the Philippines for a 9/11-style attack on an American city. The suspect, Cholo Abdi Abdullah, has pleaded not guilty.
"It was a mistake to withdraw forces in 2020,” Mick Mulroy, an ABC News contributor who served as a deputy assistant secretary of Defense and is also a veteran of operations in Somalia, told ABC News.
"Remote training was not practical enough to stem the expansion of Al Shabaab or collect on threats coming from this terrorist organization," he said.
"Today’s decision to send special operations forces back into the country to work with our key partners and the newly chosen president, who is very familiar with our operations from his previous time as president, was the right one,” Mulroy said.
