Operation Enduring Freedom – Horn of Africa
Military operation From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Operation Enduring Freedom has had related activities in the Horn of Africa.
| Operation Enduring Freedom Horn of Africa | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the War on Terror and the conflicts in the Horn of Africa | |||||
French Naval commandos (green) and United States soldiers from the 3rd Infantry Regiment (tan) participate in an exercise at Djibouti in June 2004. | |||||
| |||||
| Belligerents | |||||
| |||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||
|
CIC George W Bush (2001–2009) GEN Tommy Franks (2001–2003) GEN John Abizaid (2003–2007) ADM William J. Fallon (2007–2008) GEN Martin Dempsey (2008–2015) MRAF Sir Graham Stirrup (2003–2011) GEN David Petraeus (2008–2010) |
Ahmad Umar Garaad Mohamed*[2] Indho Ade*[2] Mohamed Garfanji*[7] | ||||
| Strength | |||||
|
500 personnel in Somalia Unknown | |||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||
|
United States 2 killed in action, 6 wounded[8] 35 non-combat fatalities (see below) |
Islamic insurgents:
More than 1,200 captured[12] | ||||
|
22–37 civilians killed[13] (American operations only) | |||||
|
Dis: Disbanded *: Former commanders | |||||
Most are supervised by Combined Joint Task Force - Horn of Africa.
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 and East Africa.[14] U.S. Central Command already had responsibility for Yemen, an instant state of concern given the Al-Qaeda insurgency in Yemen.[15] But there were concerns that takfiri militants might escape across the Arabian Sea to East Africa.
As a result, II Marine Expeditionary Force was directed to establish a task force, to be responsible for East Africa, to operate from the former French colony of Djibouti. In due course Combined Joint Task Force – Horn of Africa (CJTF-HOA) was established, with its headquarters initially based aboard the command vessel USS Mount Whitney. In October 2008, CJTF-HOA became part of the new United States Africa Command.[16]
CJTF-HOA consists of about 2,000 U.S. servicemen and women. The official area of responsibility comprises Sudan, Somalia, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritrea, the Seychelles and Kenya.[when?] Outside this Combined Joint Operating Area, in 2012, CJTF-HOA had operations in Mauritius, the Comoros, Liberia, Rwanda, Uganda and Tanzania.[17]
Naval actions against piracy
Summarize
Perspective
Piracy off the coast of Somalia 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 which heavily impacted livelihoods along the coast of southern Somalia.[18]
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. Pakistan joined CTF 150.
The European Union Military Staff directed the EU anti-piracy Operation Atalanta. NATO later ran Operation Ocean Shield
Independent anti-piracy operations were conducted off the coast of Somalia by other countries such as China and Russia.
2011
On 20 January, a 14 Royal Malaysian Navy PASKAL assault teams engaging seven Somali pirates on board the Japanese-Malaysian chemical freighter MT Bunga Laurel, about 300 nautical miles (560 km; 350 mi) east of Oman, near Gulf of Aden and Arabian Sea, resulting in 3 pirates wounded, 4 remaining pirates captured, and the freeing of 23 Filipino hostages after gunfighting aboard the vessel.[19][20][21]
In the early morning of 22 January, 15 Republic of Korea Navy special forces soldiers boarded the 11,000-ton chemical freighter Samho Jewelry which was taken by 13 pirates six days prior;[22][23] killed 8 pirates and captured 5 without taking any casualties after three hours of intense firefighting. All 21 hostages were secured, with one hostage suffering a non-fatal gunshot wound to the abdomen.
On 12 April, HDMS Esbern Snare intercepted a pirate vessel, capturing 34 pirates and freeing 34 hostages. Later that day, HNLMS Tromp opened fire on another pirate vessel, killing 2 pirates.[24]
A hijacked dhow was hailed by USS Bainbridge on 10 May, after which 7 pirates on board immediately surrendered. The ship's 15 crew members claimed they were hijacked six months prior and their ship was used as a mothership for the pirates.[25]
On 16 May, USS Stephen W. Groves exchanged fire with Jih Chun Tsai 68, a known pirate mothership. When a boarding team arrived, they found 3 pirates dead and captured 2 pirates.[26]
The Danish Navy vessel, HDMS Esbern Snare exchanged fire with a hijacked boat, killing 4 pirates on 17 May. A boarding team subsequently captured 24 injured pirates and freed 16 hostages.[26]
On 11 September, a Spanish Navy patrol boat engaged Somali pirates, freeing a French hostage after sinking the pirate skiff and capturing 7 pirates.[27] The woman was taken hostage after pirates killed her husband and left her catamaran off the coast of Yemen.[27]
On 11 October, Royal Marines embarked on board RFA Fort Victoria freed 23 crew members of a hijacked Italian cargo ship after it had been captured by pirates five days earlier. USS DeWert was the first vessel to arrive on scene after gathering intelligence on the whereabouts of the vessel and deploying counter intelligence surveillance units in the area.[28]
On 3 October, the Tanzania navy freed a hijacked vessel and apprehended seven pirates, They are handed over to civilian police for further action.
On 31 October, the Kenyan military announced that they had captured two pirate skiffs, sunk three, and killed 18 pirates.[29]
2012
Acting on intelligence from other counter-piracy forces, USS Carney boarded the Indian-flagged dhow, Al Qashmi on 6 January. By the time the search team boarded, all evidence of potential piracy had been disposed of, though the crew said they were hijacked by the nine pirates on board from a different vessel. The nine suspected pirates were disarmed and given sufficient fuel and provisions to return to Somalia.[30]
The next day, the Danish warship HDMS Absalon intercepted an Iranian-flagged dhow after identifying it as a potential pirate mother ship. Warning shots had to be fired before a search team boarded. In addition to the crew of 5 Iranian and 9 Pakistani nationals, the team seized 25 pirates. The captured pirates were then taken aboard Absalon to determine whether they should be prosecuted.[30]
A third pirate vessel was intercepted on 13 January. RFA Fort Victoria fired off warning shots to stop the vessel and then launched a boarding party. The pirates surrendered without incident and search uncovered several rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons. Royal Marines held the pirates for further investigation.[31]
HDMS Absalon had been observing a pirate mother ship for several days when it attempted to leave the coast of Somalia on 28 February.[32] Danish forces fired on the ship, forcing it to stop.[32] On board were 17 pirates and 18 hostages, though two of the hostages later died from wounds sustained.[32] NATO said that an investigation would be held regarding the hostages' deaths.[32]
Somali civil war
Summarize
Perspective
The New York Times declared the US backing of a Somali Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism a failed policy.[33] A Reuters report said that support of the ARPCT had backfired and destabilized the area.[34]
United States anti-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.[13] Other American combat operations include manned airstrikes, cruise missile strikes, and special forces raids.
On 2 January 2006, U.S. Marines operating out of Lamu, Kenya, were said to be assisting Kenyan forces patrolling the border with Somalia with the interception of Islamists.[35] On 8 January it was reported that a U.S. Air Force AC-130 gunship had attacked suspected al-Qaeda operatives in southern Somalia. It was also reported that the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower had been moved into striking distance.[36] The aircraft flew out of its base in Djibouti. 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 (UAVs) as they headed south from Mogadishu starting on 28 December.[37] 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 operatives were working with Ethiopian troops on the ground in operations inside Somalia from a base in Galkayo, in Puntland, and from Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti.[38][citation needed] 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.[39]
On 17 January 2006, 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.[40]
On 1 July 2006, a web-posted message purportedly written by Osama bin Laden urged Somalis to build an Islamic state in the country and warned western states that his al-Qaeda network would fight against them if they intervened there.[41]
On 27 December 2006, The New York Times reported analysts in Nairobi, Kenya claimed U.S. surveillance aircraft were funneling information to Ethiopian forces. A spokeswoman for Combined Joint Task Force Horn of Africa, Major Kelley Thibode, based in Djibouti, said she was "not at liberty to discuss" the matter.[42] 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 in East Africa: Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan and Abu Taha al-Sudani. Combined Task Force 150, a U.S.-led task force with its headquarters in Bahrain was operating off the coast of Somalia to disrupt terrorist activity.[43][44] At the time, the task force included vessels from Canada, France, Germany, Pakistan, the United Kingdom, and the U.S. Arleigh Burke-class destroyer USS Ramage and the Ticonderoga-class cruiser USS Bunker Hill.[45] The aim of the patrols shifted on 2 January 2007, according to diplomats, to "... stop SICC leaders or foreign militant supporters escaping".[46]
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, but this assertion was denied as "utterly bogus" by Michael Ranneberger, U.S. Envoy to Kenya and Somalia.[47] 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.[48] 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 which killed several militant leaders
Alleged operations in Somaliland
On 6 May 2005, a United States Marine Corps unit reportedly landed in Somaliland, the autonomous and self-declared state in northern Somalia. The landings were purportedly conducted to carry out searches, as well as to question locals regarding the whereabouts of terrorist suspects. United States military officials denied the allegations and said operations were not being conducted in Somaliland.[49]
Somali Civil War (2009–present)
Operations against al-Qaeda linked terrorists continued in 2009 when on 14 September several U.S. Navy helicopters launched a raid in Baraawe against Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, killing him as well as five other militants. Also in 2009, British Army soldiers from the Special Air Service and the Special Reconnaissance Regiment were deployed to Djibouti as part of Combined Joint Task Force – Horn of Africa to conduct operations against Islamist terrorists in Somalia. They carried out missions focusing on surveillance and targeting of terrorists, alongside their US counterparts, they have also been carrying out this role in Yemen.[50][51]
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.[52]
On 25 January 2012, two U.S. Navy SEAL teams raided a compound 12 miles (19 km) north of Adado, Galmudug, Somalia, freeing two hostages while killing nine pirates and capturing five others.[53]
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.[54] 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.[55] 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.[56][57][58] 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.[59][60] 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.[61] On 13 May, a U.S. strike targeted nine al-Shabab militants, three of them were allegedly killed.[62] 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.[63] 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.[64] 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.[65]
Drone attacks
- On 25 June 2011, U.S. Predator 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.[66]
- On 6 September 2011, a U.S. drone struck a large Al-Shabaab base, killing 35 militants.[citation needed]
- A drone strike on 17 September killed 17 militants.[citation needed]
- A U.S. drone strike occurred near Mogadishu on 21 January 2012, killing British al-Qaeda operative Bilal el-Berjawi.[67]
- 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.[68][69]
Combined Joint Task Force – Horn of Africa
The U.S. Combined Joint Task Force – Horn of Africa (CJTF-HOA) was created aboard the U.S. Navy command ship Mount Whitney off Djibouti in late 2002.
In February 2007, United States President George W. Bush announced the establishment of the United States Africa Command which took over all of the area of operations of CJTF-HOA in October 2008.[70][71]
CJTF-HOA consists of about 2,000 servicemen and women from the United States military and allied countries. The official area of responsibility comprises Sudan, Somalia, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritrea, the Seychelles and Kenya. Outside the Combined Joint Operating Area, CJTF-HOA has operations in Mauritius, Comoros, Liberia, Rwanda, Uganda and Tanzania.[72]
27 U.S. servicemen have been killed in non-hostile incidents in Djibouti since the start of operations in the Horn of Africa.[73][74][75][76][77][78]
Four U.S. soldiers were killed in accidents in Kenya.[79][80]
Two U.S. soldiers were killed in a vehicle accident in Ethiopia.[81]
Two U.S. servicemen were killed in the Republic of Seychelles and in the Gulf of Oman, respectively.[82]
See also
References
External links
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