Operation Enduring Freedom - Horn of Africa

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Part of the War on Terrorism

U.S. soldiers and French special forces personnel conduct a reconnaissance patrol

Date	October 2002–present
Location	Horn of Africa and Gulf of Aden
Result	Operation ongoing
Casus belli	September 11, 2001 attacks

Combatants

NATO and allies, represented by:

Belgium
Canada
France
Germany
Netherlands
Italy
Spain
United States
United Kingdom
Australia
New Zealand
Pakistan
Djibouti
Somalia
Ethiopia

al-Qaeda

Islamic Courts Union

Casualties

U.S.:
17 non-combat fatalities

8-10^[1]

Operation Enduring Freedom - Horn of Africa is the name of the military operation defined by the United States for combating terrorism in the Horn of Africa. It is one component of the overall mission of Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) and is not the exclusive OEF operation on the continent of Africa. The other OEF mission in Africa is known as Operation Enduring Freedom - Trans Sahara (OEF-TS), which has, until the creation of the new Africa Command, been run out of European Command.^[2]

The Combined Joint Task Force - Horn of Africa (CJTF-HOA) is the primary (but not sole) military component assigned to accomplish the objectives of the mission. The naval component is the multinational Combined Task Force 150 (CTF-150) which operates under the direction of the United States 5th Fleet. Both of these organizations have been historically part of United States Central Command. In February 2007, U.S. President George W. Bush stood up a new United States Africa Command which includes all of the area of operations of CJTF-HOA.^[3]

1 Operations
2 References

[edit] Operations

[edit] Denial of operations in Somaliland

On May 6, 2005, U.S. Marines were reported landing in Somaliland, the autonomous and self-declared independent northern area of Somalia. The landings were purportedly to carry out a search and questioning of locals regarding the whereabouts of terrorist suspects. U.S. military officials denied the allegations and said operations were not being conducted in Somaliland.^[4]

[edit] Escalating tensions in Somalia

On January 21, 2006, the guided missile destroyer USS Winston S. Churchill (DDG 81) captured a vessel operating off the Somali coast whose crew were suspected of piracy.^[5] On July 1, 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.^[6]

On July 11, 2006, the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) took control of the Somali capital Mogadishu, and by the beginning of December had firm control of most of the south of Somalia. In November, 2006, a U.S. Marine detachment was in Garissa town in Kenya's North Eastern Province, adjoining Somalia. Officially, the Marines were an engineering detachment conducting a humanitarian mission of drilling bore holes in conjunction with the Kenya military to support flood relief.^[7] However, local suspicions alleged the Marines were performing a reconnaissance mission close to the Somali border.^[8]^[9] On November 26, 2006, the U.S. Embassy in Kenya issued a travel alert to U.S. citizens regarding travel to Kenya or Ethiopia after letters allegedly written by the Somalian leader of the Islamic Courts Union (ICU), Sheik Hassan Dahir Aweys, encouraged suicide terrorist attacks on US citizens in those two countries.^[10]

[edit] War in Somalia

Main article: War in Somalia (2006–present)

On December 14, 2006, the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Jendayi Frazer warned al-Qaeda cell operatives were controlling the Islamic Courts Union, the Islamist faction of Somalia rapidly taking control of the southern area of the country.^[11] The next day, ICU Information Secretary Abdirahim Ali Mudey denied the allegation as baseless.^[12] Frazer later announced that the United States has no intention of committing troops to Somalia to root out al-Qaeda.^[13]

On December 27, 2006, The New York Times reported analysts in Nairobi, Kenya claimed U.S. surveillance aircraft were funneling information to Ethiopian forces. Major Kelley Thibodeau said she was "not at liberty to discuss" the matter.^[14] 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. At the time, the United States Fifth Fleet's maritime task force (Combined Task Force 150^[15]) based out of Bahrain, was patrolling off the Somali coast to prevent terrorists launching an "attack or to transport personnel, weapons or other material," said Commander Kevin Aandahl.^[16] The announcement did not say what particular ships comprised the cordon, but the task force includes vessels from Canada, France, Germany, Pakistan, the United Kingdom and the U.S. American ships of Combined Task Force 150 include the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer USS Ramage and the Ticonderoga-class cruiser USS Bunker Hill.^[17] The aim of the patrols shifted on January 2, 2007, according to diplomats, to "… stop SICC leaders or foreign militant supporters escaping".^[18]

On January 2, 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.^[19] On January 8 it was reported that an AC-130 gunship belonging to the United States military 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.^[20] 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 December 28.^[21] 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 8 militants of the ICU and at least 2 civilians were killed. On January 9 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 Lemonier, Djibouti.^[22] ^[23] On January 12, 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.^[24]

On January 17, 2007, the Assistant Deputy Secretary of Defense for African affairs, Theresa Whelan, clarifed the airstrike conducted on January 8 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.^[25] Likewise, many airstrikes which resulted in civilian casualties around Afmadow conducted by Ethiopian aircraft were mis-attributed to the United States. On January 21 the capture of U.S. troops was reported by the ICU's Qaadisiya.com site,^[26] 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.^[27] On January 24, the U.S. admitted to have made a second airstrike, but did not confirm the exact date or location of the strike.^[28] On February 1, 2007, the captured ICU leader Sharif Ahmed was released from Kenyan police authorities.^[29] He also was reported to have met with Michael Ranneberger allegedly to arrange for the release of the captured U.S. troops.^[30] By February 8, Sheikh Sharif Sheik Ahmed had gone to Yemen where other ICU members are also thought to have gone.^[31] On that day, reports in the Yememi Arabic newspaper Al-nedaa stated Sharif Ahmed's release was the first conditional step to arrange the release of varying reports of 11 or, now, 15 United States Marines allegedly captured during fighting in southern Somalia at the Battle of Ras Kamboni. Four Marines were also alleged to have been wounded in the fighting.^[32]^[33] However, while these stories of captured American soldiers were prevalent in Somali media, they received little or no attention in the Western media.