U.S. military secretly sent small team of advisors to Somalia

[unhappycamper]

http://www.latimes.com/world/worldnow/la-fg-wn-somalia-us-military-advisers-20140110,0,4273653.story



A picture provided by the African Union-United Nations Information Support Team shows a Nigerian police officer receiving an African Union helmet in Mogadishu, Somalia.

U.S. military secretly sent small team of advisors to Somalia
By David S. Cloud
January 10, 2014, 7:56 p.m.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. military secretly sent a small team of advisors to Somalia last month to assist with operations against militants, the first time U.S. troops have been stationed there since two helicopters were shot down and 18 American soldiers were killed in 1993.

The three-man advisor detachment is based at the airport in Mogadishu, the Somali capital, where a force from multiple African nations attempting to stabilize the war-ravaged Horn of Africa country has its headquarters, U.S. officials said.

The U.S. soldiers assist a force of more than 18,000 under the auspices of the African Union, which has been heavily backed by the United States and other Western countries since deploying to Somalia in 2007 with logistics help, intelligence and planning, the officials said.

The Americans also are helping Somalia’s fledgling security forces, which have struggled to assert control beyond Mogadishu and have often been the target of fierce attacks from the Shabab, an Islamic militant group with ties to Al Qaeda that ruled large parts of southern Somalia before being driven from power by the African force.

[gwheezie]

1. we have them in dozens of countries

Who knows how many?